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provement schemes will be considered when the Housing Act, 1964
comes into force. The present day cost of building work is so high
that tenants fear the inevitable rise in rent which improvements
would cause, and we may well have to persuade not only owners but
occupiers as well, that bathrooms, hot water and internal water closets
are really essential.
Apart from the Council's own Mortlake High Street scheme
there were no declared improvement areas where old dwellings are
swept away to make room for modern houses. Some of the larger old
houses, however, with large gardens, attracted the developers.
Only one Housing Management Order was made and this was a
special case involving unsatisfactory relations between the tenants
rather than with the landlord.
SECTION 'E' —INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION OF
FOOD
Regular routine inspections were carried out to all food handling
establishments. The frequency of inspection now being maintained,
when the establishment of Public Health Inspectors is at full strength,
prevents a deterioration in the standard of any particular premises
from going unnoticed for long. The provisions of the Food Hygiene
Regulations are being well observed by traders in the area, as far as
premises and facilities allow. The greatest drawback to the maintenance
of good standards of hygiene is still the fact that too often
washing facilities are too far away, or are otherwise not conveniently
accessible to the place where they are really needed, but consideration
of cost and space are formidable obstacles, especially when traders can
see no prospect of an immediate cash return.
Although the usual number of samples of food were taken for
chemical analysis only very minor infringements of the labelling
requirements were encountered.