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Slaughtering Facilities,
In the report of the Medical Officer of Health for 1954 reference
was made to the meeting of Local Authorities in Metropolitan Essex
with a view to setting up an abattoir or joint abattoirs to serve the
Boroughs in the area. Discussion of any contemplated action was
deferred until the final report of the Interdepartmental Committee
on Slaughtering was received.
A further meeting was held at West Ham in January, 1956, when
the conference deferred consideration of the matter until the
Government policy was determined.
The Council of West Ham County Borough, the convenor of the
previous conferences, called another in December to discuss a
recent circular from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food;
which was accompanied by the White Paper announcing the
Government's policy to regulate provision of slaughterhouses.
Because the policy recommended that there should be a period
during which meat traders would be free to provide slaughterhouses
of a type and in places best suiting their requirements, it
was agreed that there was little purpose in the conference considering
further the provision of public slaughterhouses but that the
present arrangements for convening a conference should continue
in case altered circumstances made it desirable to have further
discussions.
The chairman was prepared to call a meeting on request.
Works in default.
In one case only was it necessary to ask permission of the Public
Health Committee to execute works in default; this being a case
where a notice had been partly complied with.
Appeals to the owner to complete were not responded to and the
Public Health Committee finally decided to obtain tenders for the
remaining items, one of which was accepted at the end of the year.
Works executed by the Local Authority.
Such works were confined to the relaying of drainage systems,
which were, in several cases, of considerable size. The defects in
these larger systems were caused by the settlement of "made up"
ground, whilst in smaller systems they were created by conditions
due to the methods of construction considered good in the past but
frowned upon when compared with modern practice. The cost of
the works to these larger systems was recoverable from the owners.
In other cases—the smaller systems—the expense was borne by the
Council.
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