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1.
ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE
YEAR 1964
To: The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
London Borough of WALTHAM FOREST
Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
I have pleasure in submitting my Annual Report for the year 1964
upon the health and sanitary circumstances of the Borough of Chingford.
This is the last report, covering a full year, which I shall make, as
Chingford ceased to be a separate borough on the 31st March, 1965.
This fact is an occasion, then, on which to look back over the
past eighteen years during which I have held the office of Medical
Officer of Health.
I joined the staff of the Health Department in 1947 when the
immediate effects of the war were being forgotten and plans were
being prepared for repair, restoration and reconstruction throughout
the country.
The years that followed were years of great health and social
legislation. One recalls readily to mind the National Health
Service Act of 1946 which came into force in July 1948, the
numerous He using Acts, the Housing Repairs and Rents Act of 1954,
the Food and Drugs Act, 1955, the Clean Air Act, 1956, among others.
In 1950 the borough became a Food and Drugs Authority. In the
same year the Council adopted the model byelaws made for the Handling,
Wrapping and Delivery of Food and Sale of Food in the Open Air.
In 1959 the Council submitted to the Ministry of Housing and Local
Government a phased programme for the introduction of Smoke Control
Areas throughout the borough,
In the purely medical field, the introduction in 1956 of a
vaccine against poliomyelitis marked a great advance in the control
of this disease. B.C.G. vaccination against tuberculosis has been
offered to all school children of the 13 year age group since 1954:
the response has been very encouraging and the long-term effects of
this policy should be apparent in the years to come.
So much for a brief review of the past.