View report page

Health Department,
Town Hall,
Tottenham, N. 15.
31st July, 1957
To His Worshipful the Mayor
Aldermen and Town Councillors.
Mr. Mayor, My Lady, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit this my 21st Annual Report on
health conditions in the Borough for the year ended the 31st
December, 1956.
Of special interest is that publication of this Report
coincides with the jubilee year of the School Health Service
introduced by the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907.
Tottenham, like other large non-county boroughs in outer London,
lost its autonomy under post-war legislation; but not before it
had achieved a system of completeness, productive of such excellent
results that the new system of remote control has not yet
been able to better what it has superseded. Present discussions
on reorganisation of local government services is a matter of
vital interest to a town the size of Tottenham with its past
record of progress.
Details of the work of the public health department are set
out in the appropriate sections of the Report. As in previous
years particular attention has been paid to housing repairs,
demolition or closing of individual unfit houses and to further
progress in slum clearance. In the department's endeavour to
operate "clean food" provisions of recent legislation, acknowledgement
is made of the active co-operation of the Tottenham Chamber
of Commerce and the local food traders. By the introduction of
the Clean Air Act prompt action is anticipated for an extension of
the smoke controlled area already in operation under powers
previously obtained by the Tottenham Corporation Act.
The new statutory change in disignation of sanitary inspector
to public health inspector must generally be regarded as more in
keeping with the wide expansion in recent years of this officers
contribution to the solution of our many environmental health
Problems. The pilot survey of occupational needs in factory
Premises published in my 1952 Report has been extended during the
Past year and the findings recorded in the body of this Report.