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Your Worshipful Committee having agreed in past years to similar proposals, formal approval
was, on the recommendation of your Medical Officer, again given to the proposed action of the
Benfleet Urban District Council.
At the request of the Clerk to the Benfleet Urban District Council, a meeting was held at Guildhall
House on the 23rd November to discuss difficulties in the control of houseboats in the
Benfleet area.
The Chairman of the Port of London Health Committee took the chair with your Medical Officer,
the Deputy Solicitor, the Clerk to the Port Health Committee and the Port Health Inspector of the
district in attendance.
The representatives of the Benfleet Urban District Council present were the Chairman of the
Housebpat Committee, the Clerk to the Council and the Senior Public Health Inspector.
The position with reference to houseboats in Benfleet Creek was explored especially with
reference to the recent decision by the Justices in Southend Court allowing an appeal against
the Benfleet Urban District Council's decision not to grant 'Consents' under Section 110 of the
Essex County Council Act, 1952, to two houseboats in Benfleet Creek (East).
It was stated that the Port Health Authority will in all probability now grant 'Assents' under
Section 212 of the Essex County Council Act, 1952, in respect of the above-mentioned two houseboats
and will continue, for the present, to grant "Assents" in respect of other houseboats, as
requested by the Benfleet Urban District Council.
It was further considered that in the present circumstances, the Port Health Authority cannot
help the Benfleet Urban District Council to any material extent in the matter of "Consents"
under Section 110 of the Act, or in the removal of unsatisfactory houseboats.
From the discussion it appears that the Benfleet Urban District Council will now issue
"Consents" to expire on the 31st May, 1957, to all houseboats who make application.
For the future, the Benfleet Urban District Council will continue their efforts for the removal of
those houseboats which are in a poor condition.
The Port Health Authority hope that when the proposed new Houseboat Bye-laws are approved,
it will be possible by a rigorous application of those Bye-laws, to ensure that houseboats which
remain at Benfleet will be maintained in a good and sanitary condition.
RIVER POLLUTION
The interest of your Worshipful Committee in Thames Pollution has prompted your Medical
Officer to quote from a comment in the "Lancet" for 14th July, 1956, as follows:—
Research in water pollution concerns itself nowadays with water as an amenity rather
than as a vital fluid; but it is not the less important for the change of emphasis. All
over the country there are streams where our elders fished, which support no life today
but anaerobic bacteria. They look nasty and smell worse, and inescapable gravity
spreads their nastiness for many miles downstream. The consequent risk to bathers and
others are hard to assess but cannot be overlooked. Commercial fisheries have been
ruined and water made unfit for industrial uses. The main causes of damage are poisons
(such as cyanides), organic refuse which robs water of oxygen, and — a new hazard
whose effects are not yet fully comprehended — the synthetic detergents used in every
home. An 'iceberg' of foam five feet high is a dramatic and not unlovely sight, but its
effect on plant and animal life seems to be uniformly deleterious.
"Like our patients, no two rivers are identical: they differ in physiology andhabit as
well in anatomy. There is no bold cure-all to be applied at all times in all places. The
foul fluid which passes and repasses under Westminster Bridge comes from the limpid
springs of the Cotswolds and, once below the Nore, dances in pellucid waves under the
summer sun. The cause of this double metamorphosis is a problem large enough'to
daunt any investigator; but, bit by bit, the parts played by sewage and industrial effluents,
by hot water from the generating stations, and the healthy breezes off the Essex
marshes are being understood. Shall we ever again see the Thames bright with running
salmon? Not in our lifetime; but perhaps the streams of the Black Country will be a
delight and not a disgrace and trout will rise again in the Upper Lea. If the casual
reader thinks that fishing interests occupy too much of the Board's attention, let him
remember how much the general enthusiasm for clean rivers owes to the saeva indignatio
of a hundred thousand anglers."
The second paragraph quoted from the "Lancet" says in essence what your Medical Officer
wrote at greater length in his report to your Worshipful Committee on the 27th May, 1955.
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