[Report 1920] / Medical Officer of Health, Stirling County Council.

  • Stirlingshire (Scotland). County Council.
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1920] / Medical Officer of Health, Stirling County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    56/122 (page 52)
    Longcroft, and we are presently awaiting the Mining En- gineer’s report. On this site it is proposed to erect 20 houses, but if the Banton Scheme is not proceeded with, it may he necessary to add a few more houses on this site. The site is capable of extension for that purpose, if necessary. The total number of occupied houses within the Central District reported under the Housing Survey as being unfit for human habitation, and not reasonably capable of being made fit, was 143 for the portion of the District surveyed when the Scheme was framed. Details have not yet been considered by the Housing Committee, and now that the Schemes for meeting the existing shortage are fairly well advanced, it will be necessary to devote more attention to this branch of the Housing Scheme. “ (3) For 50 houses required to meet the shortage due to con- version of one and two apartment houses into houses of larger accommodation. “ No progress has yet been made with this part of the Housing Scheme. The number required will depend on the steps taken by proprietors for repair and reconstruction of defective houses, and also on the effect of the Bye-laws as to occupancy under the Housing Act of 1919. These Bye-laws have not yet been made. “ VII.—TIME AVAILABLE FOR COMPLETING SCHEME. “ As above-mentioned, one-half of the time allowed for carry- ing out the scheme has now expired, and we have until 19th August, 1922, or such later date as the Board may allow for carrying out the remainder of our Scheme. Unless progress is very much expedited, it will be impossible to carry out even a reduced scheme within the time. Several weeks were lost owing to a Joiners’ Strike in 1920, and many weeks have been lost through delay in obtaining materials. Reference has been made to the delay in obtaining bricks, and this has led to consideration of r. Scheme of. Brickmaking in association with the Eastern District Committee under which some contribution would be made to the number of bricks required. Delays also occurred in the selection of sites in areas liable to be affected by mineral workings. Com- pulsory powers for acquiring sites are practically useless in such cases, as they do not extend to minerals, and support would re- 4U11 ® 1° purchased, probably at heavy cost, if the proprietor should at any time decide to work the minerals. Good sites have had to be abandoned on this account, after fruitless negotiations v ith the proprietors, and additional powers are desirable for dealing with this difficulty. So soon as the details of the Schemes under the second and third branches of our Housing Scheme have been further considered, the Board of Health should be requested to give their views as to an extension of the time allowed. “ VIII.—HOUSING STAFF. “ We were among the first of the Local Authorities to mobilise a whole-time Housing Staff, and the experiment has proved success- ful- .Mr Glass, our Housing Architect, has given valuable assist- ance in the compiling of this Memorandum.