[Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Smethwick County Borough.
- Smethwick (Worcestershire, England). County Borough Council.
- Date:
- 1930
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Smethwick County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![function as fresh air inlets only. The columns are each of a sufficient height to cari-y the sewer air well n.bove neighbouring buildings. The scheme was carried out by the Borough Engineer and Surveyor, and since its installation no complaints have been received. The Surveyor reports that the sewerage of the Warley Housing Estate has been commenced. CLOSET ACCOMMODATION. Practically the whole of the clo.set accommodation of the town is on the water carriage system. The few hou.ses whei’e the privy midden or soil pan system remains are in situations not accessible to a sewer, and as practically all these houses will be dealt with in the Council’s five years’ housing programme bj’ demolition no steps have been taken to secure the conversion of the closets. With the above exceptions the conversion of closets from the conservancy to the water carriage system was completed in about the year 1914, but of the total existing closets about, 440 comprise var.ying types of waste water closets. In the Smethwick Corporation Act, 1929, there is provision for .securing the conversion of the.se closets to fresh water closets, providing that t.he Corporation contributes not less than 07ie-third of the expenditure incuri'ed in such conversion. It is hoped that these insajiitary apj)liances will be dealt with within the next year or two. SCAVENGING. The cleansing of streets and the collection of house refuse are carried out by the Public Works Committee under the direction of the Borough Surv'eyor. The .S3'stem of street cleansing in operation is an efficient, one giving main and .secondaiw roads a daily service and unclassified roads, according to importance, thi’ee times, twice and once at least in each week. House refu.se is collected weeklv and trade refuse is collected three times or less per week as requiiod, particular attention being given to the refu.se from offensive trades. The boating - awaj’ of refuse to an outside tip has now been abawh ned and the I'efuse in exce.ss of the capacitv of the borough destructor is now disposed of bv controller! tipping at the Abbe.v Hoad tip. I am informed by t.he Borough Survej'or that the tip has been inspected bv' Mr. Dawes of the Mini.stiw of Health, who expressed himself as perfectly satisfied that the same complies with the recommendations of the Ministiy of jHealth. In m.v last, survey- i-eport for the .vear 1925 I re])orted on the position of the town with regard to accommodation for the storage of domestic refuse as follows: — Number of houses with galvanised iron bins .sfnd covers 13,079 Number of houses with a good ash pit with pi’oper door and covering ... ... ... ... ... ... 2,945 At that time the requirements of the existing law were satisfied if a house had an ash pit with proper door and covering, but the Smeth¬ wick Corporation Act, 1929, included a provision under which the Corporatio7i maj’ require the provision of a portable covered galvanised iron dust bin of approved size and construction in lieu- of anj’ existing accommodation. During the .vear under review the provision of over 1,000 additional ash biijs has been secured,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30091226_0082.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
