[Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard R.D.C.

  • Liskeard (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1951
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    place them beyond hope of repair at reasonable cost. With the cost of materials and labour for repairs so high, it does not seem reasonable that some pro¬ portionate increase in the rent to allow for this should not have been allowed. Even with such an increase the rents charged would have been very much more attractive than those of new houses which rfiust sooner or later be provided to replace them. I have written previously on the importance of good housing in the treatment of tuberculosis and I am glad to say that members of District Councils have shown themselves sympathetic to the claims of applicants suffering from tuberculosis. There is little new to report upon in respect of water supply in the Area Apart from Liskeard Rural District, supplies were generally adequate and of good quality. In the Liskeard Rural District work on the first instalment of a comprehensive scheme of supply continued, and moderate progress in the laying of a trunk main from the St. Cleer reservoir to Polruan was achieved. The rate of progress was considerably slowed by delay in providing pipes and fittings, and by difficulties in obtaining suitable workmen in sufficient numbers It is hoped that this section of the scheme will be complete and in operation by the late summer of 1952, putting an end to the annual water shortage crisis which has afflicted Polruan each summer. It now seems likely that progress of this scheme in other directions in the Liskeard Rural District will be greatly slowed down by national limitations on capital expenditure of this type and by shortage of steel and other material essential to the execution of work of this type. Nevertheless it is encouraging to know that a venture of this des¬ cription has in spite of many difficulties been started, and to hope that at some time the benefits of a piped supply of pure water will be available throughout the Liskeard Rural District. As far as provision of proper methods of sewage disposal is concerned the picture is by no means as bright as that for water supply. In urban areas, with the exception of Saltash, crude untreated sewage is discharged to adjacent waterways. In rural areas the problem is perhaps less acute since no very large volume of sewage has to be dealt with at any one place, and in the case of new housing some form of treatment and disposal is provided. In the two Rural Districts moreover efforts are being made to provide sewage disposal schemes for the towns and larger villages. Thus in the Liskeard Rural District schemes were in course of construction at St. Cleer and at Seaton (in conjunction with St. Germans Rural District) and in the St. Germans Rural District schemes were in preparation for Callington, Landrake and Hessenford during 1951. The difficulties and the cost of providing sewage disposal arrangements ■continue to increase to such an extent as to seriously prejudice the prospect of future developments in this field. In the preface to this Annual Report for 1951 I have not written at such great length as in the preface to last year’s Report. Great advances have taken place in the health of the community in the century that has elapsed since Public Health services and Preventive Medicine made their appearance on