[Report 1913] / Medical Officer of Health, Great Ouseburn R.D.C.

  • Great Ouseburn (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1913] / Medical Officer of Health, Great Ouseburn R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    steadily increasing-, especially in Urban Districts, whilst in Rural Districts it is about stationary. In Urban Districts whereas in 1906 one person out of every 1,252 living died from Cancer, the proportion was one out of every 1,086 in 1912. The Housing Question.—This question in Rural Districts is of widespread importance, and one to which we cannot shut our eyes. It is the duty of the Medical Officer of Health under the f‘ Housing Act” to seek out and report to his Council any house that he considers unfit for habitation. A great deal of time has been taken up during the past year with this matter, and I would beg to submit that considerable progress has been made. In all, 194 houses have been inspected and reports sent forward. At first sight this number may appear to be a small one, but it must be borne in’mind that they were all selected houses, chosen as representing the worst in the district. This is demonstrated by the fact that of these 194 examined, 22 only were in our consideration in a satisfactory state. If our object had been to secure a large number of houses visited it would have been a simple matter to have accumulated a long list, when the proportion of satisfactory houses to unsatisfactory would have differed considerably from that shown above. At the end of the year 1913, we have 174 houses on hand, which we consider more or less defective, 44 of which are in our opinion quite uninhabitable, and for 18 of which closing orders have been issued. In only one of the eighteen cases has the owner made any serious attempt to render the house habitable. The features common to many of the cottages are excessive damp, probably due to the fact that many of these houses were erected some considerable time before it was the rule to insert damp courses ; bad floors which cannot be kept clean and are harbourers of dust and dirt, rooms ventilated badly and in many cases not ventilated at all, insufficient spouting, lack of paving in the yards, &c. We also discovered several cases of overcrowding. That there is a need of more houses in our district is an undeniable fact. This is chiefly as far as our investigation has proceeded in Boroughbridge, Minskip, Great and Little Ouse- burn, and Whixley. I feel sure that if cottages with fair sized gardens were built in these villages they would let even if the rents were as much as 3/6 per week. The garden land, which would certainly be an attraction to a tenant, should not, in my opinion, be less that one-eighth of an acre in extent, for it is the produce of the garden that will enable the occupier to pay the difference between the rent of his present cottage and that which it is proposed to build. It should, I think, be borne in mind, that 12/6 per annum will pay off the cost of an acre of land bought at ,£50 which works out to less than one penny per week per rood. The construction of the better class cottages would attract tenants from cottages not quite so good, and those latter, so vacated, would attract tenants from the still more inferior ones, and thus finally lead to the permanent evacuation and closing of the houses we consider uninhabitable. I am glad to say that a Com- mittee has been formed to thoroughly investigate this matter, and I hope next year to be able to report that considerable progress has been made. Sewage and Sewerage.—A Sewer at Little Ouseburn has been diverted, so that the sewage after passing through a small tank is turned into a plot of land for irrigation. The sewer at Rufforth which caused us a lot of trouble towards the end of last year is now working quite satisfactorily. Acomb sewers have been under consideration during the year, and a scheme has been approved subject to the approval of the Local Government Board whereby the main outfall sewer is to be enlarged and a new sewer is to be carried through for the Beckfield Lane area. This will mean a greater amount of sewage being carried on the present sewage field and entail very careful working of the ground if we are to get satisfactory re- sults. The soil of the sewage farm is not of the best for irrigation purposes, and I am sorry to say the results are not as good as they might otherwise be. If we cannot (3)