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towns generally up and down the country is inevitable and probably desirable,
but town planners are faced with a difficult problem in their efforts to find
suitable building sites and to house as many people as possible reasonably
near their places of work. Much hardship, in the main financial but often
resulting in potential danger to health, can result from the rehousing of
people long distances from their employment.
One of the major tasks of the Public Health Department is to keep a close
watch on the housing conditions of the people, with a view to seeing that they
are reasonable and not a source of danger to health and wellbeing. The deterioration,
apart from war damage, of house property as a result of the
inevitable neglect occurring during the war years is now presenting a very
serious problem. Until such time - unfortunately that happy era is not yet
in sight - as the provision of new dwellings is adequate to meet the requirements
of all applicants, much of the older type property must be kept in use:
dealing with such dwellings and holding a fair balance between complaints of
tenants and the difficulties in which so many owners now find themselves continues,
and will continue for many years, to take up much of the time, energy
and skill of the staffs of Public Health Departments. It is encouraging to
hear suggestions for further slum clearance programmes now we are half-way
through the first post-war five year programme. These programmes deal with
areas comprising a number of houses, and the responsibility for clearance as
well as for the rehousing of displaced persons is shared between the County
Council and the Borough Councils. Individual unfit houses and parts of
houses are left to be dealt with by the Borough Council, and in this connection
I have the impression that the time has now arrived for close attention to be
paid to a number of the many dwellings of the basement or underground room
type that exist in this Borough.
The importance of atmospheric pollution, so long one of the gravest
dangers to the public health in London, was brought home to the people more
forcibly than ever before as a result of the appalling death rate and damage
to health resulting from the conditions prevailing in the middle of December.
It has so often happened in the history of mankind that out of evil has come
good, and there are indications that at long last this great blight on the
good name of London's local government is likely to be attacked with the
determination, energy and zeal such a serious state of affairs demands. I am
very pleased to record that the Hackney Borough Council is fully alive to the
seriousness of the problem and is willing to play its part to the full in any
measures which can be taken to deal with it.
Pull details of the activities of the Department in regard to food and
food hygiene are set out in the appropriate section of the body of the report.
One is pleased to report that many improvements in the hygienic handling of
food in shops, cafes and other places continue to be made. The general
situation, however, in regard to food does not permit of any degree of complacency;
a good deal more remains to be done, and I am of opinion that far
better results are likely to be obtained by education and persuasion than
through punitive measures. The matter of clean food is one in which the
housewife has much power in her hands: she must, however, be urged to bring
home to traders her determination to be served with clean, safe food, Deliberate
adulteration of food is, fortunately, nowadays a relatively rare occurrence
and consequently more of the time of the staff can be devoted to making direct
contact with persons in the food trades, with a view to helping them in their
endeavours to secure the hygienic handling and safety of food.
In the nation-wide ageing of our people Hackney shares, and measures for
the wellbeing of aged persons are of paramount importance. The County Council
is in the main the local authority under the National Assistance Act, 1948,
and it is also the local health authority under the National Health Service
Act, 1946. Whilst the Borough Council' s powers in regard to the personal
health and welfare services are very limited it is, nevertheless, a fact that