[Report 1925] / Medical Officer of Health, Orkney County & Kirkwall Burgh.

  • Orkney (Scotland). County Council
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1925] / Medical Officer of Health, Orkney County & Kirkwall Burgh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the question, owing to the fact that every house in the Burgh is fully occupied, and dispossessed tenants would only if pos- sible get in somewhere and intensify the overcrowding already existing. Until a big housing scheme is adopted or private enterprise makes a big move, 1 am afraid there is no prospect of dealing with any of the old and insanitary properties in the Burgh. Again, with the second point, I find many houses that are reasonably fit but do not meet modern requirements. Un going into the question I am faced with two or three checks. 1. No possibiliy of fixing up modern requirements owing to lack of space. 2. Inability or want of desire to lay out the money for the necessary alterations. Much of this property brings in but a small rent and the necessary work costs a lot of money, and hence the unwillingness in many instances, but as far as my powers of observation go, and from what the occupiers of the houses tell me, many of the landlords have been drawing the rent for years and never spent a bit of it on the property, either inside or out. One man informed me that he had lived 25 years in the house and the landlord had never spent a penny on it, and this is so in many of the houses; it is the tenants them- selves that replace wall-papers and a bit of paint now and again. SLUM AREA CLEARANCE SCHEME. During the year the sixteen two-roomed houses under this Scheme were finished and are now in occupation. This is the full allowance of two-roomed houses, and the next lot to be built are of three rooms. The number qf these houses is eight. I hope the work of building these will soon be put in hand and the erection be proceeded with as expeditiously as pos- sible, for the sooner the Area is cleared of its dwellers the better. Closing Orders.—During the year 27 Closing Orders were made. These, with one exception, were all in connection with the Slum Clearance Area. The other was that of a vacant room I inspected and found necessary to close until put into a fit condition. Closing orders removed one. Total number of new houses erected during the year is 21. Three under Subsidy Scheme, one private enterprise, 17 by Town Council, including the Weir Steel House. Total number of houses inspected and records made, 62.
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