Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, The United Parishes of St. Margaret and St. John, Westminster]
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its present terminus on the Surrey side of Westminster
Bridge to the Middlesex side of the bridge in this parish
The Committee therefore watched the Bill, but were not
called upon to take action thereon in consequence of the
withdrawal of the provision referred to
The majority of the other Bills examined and reported
upon by the Committee were general in their application
THE JOINT WORKS AND SANITARY COMMITTEE
At pages 223-7 of the last Annual Report of the Vestry
the circumstances under which the Works and Sanitary
Committees were requested to sit together as a Joint
Committee were fully noticed It is therefore only
necessary to call to mind that the special duty with which
they were charged was that of ''obtaining a service of
street cleansing, watering and dusting more commensurate
with the present payments and requirements, and of
rendering the general sanitary administration of the parish
more efficient" Their proceedings from June, 1888, to
Lady Day, 1889, which were totally unproductive as to the
first part of the reference, were reviewed at some length in
the last issue, as were also the improvements brought about
in the department under the supervision of the Medical
Officer of Health To reproduce in detail the acts of the
Committee in the past twelve months in the direction of
improving the street cleansing, watering and dusting,
would occupy far more space than in the last report, and
would not repay the perusal, for the result may be told in
two words—disappointment and failure Not only were
insurmountable obstacles placed in the way of the Vestry
acquiring suitable wharf accommodation by which to
dispose of the street refuse and house dust, but exorbitant
prices were subsequently asked by the few contractors who
tendered for the service With the object of breaking up
what was openly declared to be a "ring," the Committee