[Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Clay Cross U.D.C.

  • Clay Cross (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1952
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Clay Cross U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/24 (page 9)
    Though the Council has been active in the building of new houses during the year the housing waiting lists are still large and, as I have mentioned before, the Urban District is unfortunate in having not only a large number of sub-standard houses, but also far too many that are in the demolition category and should be dealt with urgently. It is to be remembered, however, that with so many families living in shared accommodation that every house demolished means one less for this class of applicant, and the weighing up of the needs of the prospective tenants in shared accommodation with the tenants living in totally unfit properties is a most difficult one. If in the demolition of unfit properties only one or two were concerned the decision would be easier. Unfortunately in Clay Cross there are a great number of “terraced rows,” so that the houses only vary in the degree of unfitness, all suffer from the same fundamental defects. It is not, therefore, possible to pick out only the very worst properties in a row because when they are vacated, deterioration inevitably spreads in a short time to the adjacant houses. To add to the problem there are quite a number of houses, admittedly sub-standard but fairly well maintained, which are badly affected by subsidence. The owners (The N.C.B.) are anxious to get these cleared as they are a continual source of expense. In fact, one can say that repairers are hardly ever finished on this job. Iiifeciiou.^ I>i.*i>ense.s. Once again there have been no cases of diphtheria notified in the Urban District, the fourth successive year which has been free. There was an epidemic of measles during the year, 225 cases being notified, but in this disease, as in all the other common infectious diseases notified, no deaths were recorded.