[Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Solihull County Borough.

  • Solihull (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1962
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Solihull County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/50 (page 2)
    FROM THE CHIEF PUBLIC HEALTH INSPECTOR In the field of hygiere of the environment improvements maintenance of houses play a large part, concerned as they ai with the preservation of the structure, the betterment of amenities and the provision of such essentials as high qualit water supplies, satisfactory lighting and ventilation, the di age of wastes from the site and the removal of rubbish and it disposal. In all these matters the public health inspector hs supervisory responsibilities, and in the case of older or poc' properties, the duty of reporting to the Council those house; which cannot be made fit for habitation at reasonable cost, v a view to their demolition. The slum clearance programme has not been a large one ir Solihull. A few clearance orders have been made but most of 1 400 houses dealt with were old houses of the agricultural cottage type overtaken by urban development also a number of legacies of the first war and its aftermath which had become-' progressively dilap dated owing to lack of repair. The demol:. of the central area of Solihull prior to its rebuilding will remove the last of the unfit houses on the original programm slum clearance, although it is expected that from time to tir there will be houses which, to borrow a phrase from the Hous]= Acts, cannot be repaired at reasonable cost’. Still remainii are houises on the Mount Estate, Shirley which the Council hoped to deal with by redevelopment, and the policy of the 0. there has been to deal with such houses by Demolition Ordersi; they became vacant and the allocation of a Council house. Inr way the worst of the houses have been removed, and although are still houses of low grade in this area, as a whole the standard of housing on the estate has improved. Although housing of the population is important the sup; vision of food, particularly fresh meat, cannot be said to tl second place. The Slaughterhouses Act, 1958 and the Regul atii it authorised have improved slaughterhouse construction and practice of slaughtering at one step by insisting on the improvement of old slaughterhouses, the provision of facilit?