[Report 1960] / Medical Officer of Health, Canterbury Borough / City & County.

  • Canterbury (England). City & County Council.
Date:
1960
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1960] / Medical Officer of Health, Canterbury Borough / City & County. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    43/58 (page 37)
    Foul Linen Service The part-time rodent operator also assists in the foul linen service which is operated by the Council to help elderly ailing people. The work involved is checking the articles for the laundry; taking the clothing to the Nunnery Fields Hospital Laundry and returning the clean clothing to the owners. 389 bundles of clothing were handled in 1960. Knackers Yard One building is licensed by the Council for the slaughter of horses and other animals. Only a small trade is carried on. All animals are slaughtered in a humane manner and the proprietors dispose of the meat uncooked for cat and dog food. Verminous Houses Nine Council houses and eight other houses were found to be verminous and were disinfested by the Public Health Department staff. The scheme put into operation in 1948 to prevent the spread of vermin in Council houses was continued, but owing to staff shortage it was not possible to inspect the furniture and effects of prospective tenants. As in the past each house, whether old or new, is given a precautionary spraying with insecticide before occu- pation commences and in the year 229 such sprayings were done. The staff carried out 73 fumigations to rid premises of wasps’ nests. Rodent Control One part-time rodent operator is employed by the Council and the methods used are those recommended by the Infestation Branch of the Ministry of Agriculture. Complaints were received from 171 persons; 161 were in respect of infestation in private houses and 10 were from occupiers of busi- ness premises. During the investigation of these complaints and in carrying out surveys of the district 26 additional infestations were discovered. Maintenance treatments of the sewers was carried out in June and it would appear that the number of rats is being kept at a very low level. The operator, who also assists with other public health work, was kept fully occupied and the following is a summary of the rodent work carried out:— Visits to houses ... ... 1,014 Visits to other premises ... No. of premises cleared :— 74 Rais Houses 139 Business premises Mice 6 Houses 47 Business premises 5 No charge is made for rodent extermination in house property, but a charge for the work done in business premises based on time spent and cost of materials, is made to the occupier.