[Report 1937] / Monmouthshire County Council.

  • Monmouthshire County Council
Date:
1937
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1937] / Monmouthshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    153/182 page 137
    There 1 shall be able to convince you that there is an ample margin of borrowing power to enable the Blaenavon Urban District Council to under- take this all-important work. 1 think 1 shall be able to convince you, Sir, that having regard to the rateable value of this District, it can be done. The rates are not at all exorbitant, and even though there may be some small burden as the result of this housing scheme being carried into effect, it would be cheerfully borne by the workers of the District who desire this housing accommodation. But 1 think we may be able to show that the risk of that loss is very small, and that because the rents that prevail in the district, are such as to provide for the necessary interest, sinking fund, and repairs on any house erected; and if the Urban District Council build themselves in a businesslike way, we say that they can provide the houses without any loss at all. So if you look at it from that point of view, we hope to convince you, and the Board, that there is nothing that can be an answer to the need that we submit there is for these houses, and that the Urban District Council should provide the accommodation that is so greatly needed Evidence in favour of the County Council was given by :— 1. A number of local witnesses who recited their own personal experience of the shortage of habitable workmen’s dwellings, and their own diffi- culty in obtaining suitable houses. 2. Councillor W. L. Cook, who spoke from his official knowledge as assist- ant Miners’ Agent, of the insanitary housing conditions under which the working classes were living in the district. 3. The County Medical Officer, who, in addition to supporting the re- ports already furnished officially to the Local Government Board, the County Council, and the local Urban Council, brought forward, for the first time, special detailed reports, viz. :— (a) Sixteen instances where overcrowding was officially reported to the Blaenavon Council, and in which no action was taken by the local Council. (b) Fifty-five cases of gross overcrowding. (c) Seventeen cases in which separate sleeping room accommodation for the sexes was impossible, and which indecent conditions of living could not be remedied owing to the shortage of houses. (d) Special report upon the local Incidence of Tuberculosis and the housing conditions connected therewith. (e) Special report upon the local facts furnished by the Census Re- turns, 1911, and deductions therefrom. On the second evening of the Inquiry, the Local Council, acting upon the
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