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44
III. SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE AREA.
Scavenging
The Public Cleansing Officer has kindly supplied me with a report on the
work of his department for the year.
In September, 1931, it was decided to set up a separate department for
Street and Market Cleansing, Collection and Disposal of House and Trade
Refuse, the Removal of Snow, Street Watering, Street Gritting, &c., and to
form a new Committee for the administration thereof, i.e., the Public Cleansing
Committee.
It was found necessary, in the course of this reorganisation, to divide the
Borough into 6 sections, each of which is under the supervision of a foreman,
who in his turn reports to the responsib'e Official to the Committee, viz., the
Public Cleansing Officer.
Collection of House and Trade Refuse.—Since the inauguration of the
department up to the 3.1st December, .1932, a great amount of detailed information
has been collected regarding this service with the view to giving a more
frequent collection with dustless loading.
Street Cleansing.—To improve this service the Committee purchased three
new sweeping and swilling machines which, in conjunction with the other
swilling machines already owned by the Council, work day and night. During
the night most of the main roads are swilled and swept.
There is a large number of Street Markets in Stepney; to increase the
efficiency of cleansing these markets it was decided to employ men working in
two shifts, thereby giving constant attention to the markets between 7 a.m. and
8.40 p.m. Monday to Friday, and 7 a.m. and 9.40 p.m. Saturday, sweeping
the refuse and collecting same into trucks, a vehicle purchased specifically for
the purpose, calling at intervals to collect the refuse from the trucks and to take
the same to the disposal centre.
The Council employ a large number of men on cleansing at night.
It was found practicable to employ motor vheicles (which the Council
already possessed) for night cleansing, picking up the sweepings and taking
them to the disposal centres, thereby enabling the Committee to dispense with
the services of horses on this work.
1 here are many main and important thoroughfares in Stepney and it was
decided to employ scavengers on shift work on the main roads from 7 a.m. to
8.40 p.m.
Disposal.—(a) Destructor, Gunthorpe Street.—The destructor was a 10 cell
top fed, and had been erccted for 30 years. Many complaints had been
received regarding this destructor, and during July, 1932, the refuse hitherto
dealt with at this depot was diverted to Devonshire Street Depot to be disposed
by barge and the destructor closed.