|
REPORTS of MEDICAL
INSPECTORS of
the LOCAL
GOVERNMENT BOARD No.289 DR.
F. ST. GEORGE MIVART'S REPORT TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT
BOARD ON THE GENERAL SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES
AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE BOURNE
URBAN DISTRICT. ________________ LONDON: PRINTED
FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. BY
DARLING & SON, Ltd, 34-40 Bacon Street, E And
to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from WYMAN
AND SONS, LTD, FETTER LANE, E.C. or
OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT, EDINBURGH; or
E PONSONBY, 116 GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN. ________________ 1907 Price
Threepence. Dr. F. George Mivart's Report to the Local
Government Board on the General Sanitary H FRANKLIN PARKINS, Assistant Medical Officer, 18th October 1907. ___________________ In the spring of 1906 the Local
Government Board found it necessary to draw the attention of the Bourne
Urban District Council to the absence from the annual Report of the local
Medical Officer of Health of any information as to the sanitary
supervision of Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops. The Board requested that a
report should be furnished as soon as possible by that officer showing how
far the provisions of the Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Orders were
being enforced. The Report thus called for disclosed the facts that (1)
the then Inspector of Nuisances was keeping no diary, so that the
frequency of his visits to milk premises could not be ascertained; and (2)
that Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops were not registered. These facts, in conjunction with certain circumstances connected with the appointments respectively of a new Medical Officer of Health and a new Inspector of Nuisances, as well as the receipt of complaints of lack of promptitude in dealing with nuisances, decided the Board to instruct me to inspect and report upon the general sanitary circumstances of the Urban, as I had recently done in the case of the Rural, District of Bourne. The Bourne Urban District, having a population of 4,400 persons dwelling in some 1,075 inhabited houses, occupies in area 9,775 acres in extent, and of a roughly oblong shape bounded on three sides by the Rural District of Bourne. On its eastern side it abuts upon the Rural District of Spalding. It comprises the ancient market town of Bourne and hamlets of Cawthorpe and Dyke, distant respectively from the town about a mile and a mile and a half in a northerly direction. Cawthorpe contains some 16 houses and Dyke about 60. The town of Bourne itself consists chiefly of buildings placed along four main roads radiating from a central market place. A river called the Bourne Eau flows eastward across the southern half of the district from its source known as Wellhead, which rises in a field adjoining the ruins of the castle, to join the River Glen at Tongue End. The river was formerly navigable below the quay in Eastgate. The Bourne Eau also receives the overflow from St Peter's Pool, a pond adjacent to the workhouse, and in which a bore, sunk years ago to provide water for the watercress here grown, has ever since been continually spouting to waste. The chief industries of the population are in connection with various forms of agriculture. But there are also in the town of Bourne two factories of mineral waters having a considerable reputation. Fellmongering works and artificial manure works are also carried on. The district slopes from west to east,
and is comparatively flat. Only to the extreme west and beyond the town is
an elevation of some 70 feet above ordnance datum attained. In the town of
Bourne, the elevation varies from 32 feet near the castle to 16 feet at
Eastgate. Eastward, beyond Bourne, the district consists of fen land. GENERAL SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES
The geological formation generally is
gravels and clays in various forms overlying the limestone. To the
eastward, superficially, is spread the alluvial ground of the fens. There are, I am informed, about 12
miles of main road and 16 miles of district road. These roads appear, for
the most part, clean and well kept. Dwellings of the working class: Rents
are rather high in the town of Bourne; higher, I am informed, than in
adjoining parishes. The lowest rents appear to be about 1s. 3d. per week,
for which a cottage having two rooms, one up and one down, is obtainable. The approximate number of unoccupied
houses is 30. These are chiefly low-rented properties, just under or just
over £5 per annum, or unfit for habitation at all. The approximate number
of houses let at £5 or under is 100; and 450 at between £5 and £10. As regards the central part of the
town, houses are sometimes grouped closely together, as in Exeter Row,
Abbey Road &c. In some instances curtilage space of 3 feet only is
afforded. Houses hereabouts are mostly built of bricks or of some other
fairly substantial material. But the poorest section of the working people
mostly resides in the eastern portions of the town, in the quarter known
as Eastgate. Here, especially in the locality called Bedehouse Bank, most
miserable hovels are found. Commonly detached, or semi-detached, built in
roughest manner of plaster, or apparently, of some kind of daub upon laths
or brushwood, and generally with filthy and dilapidated thatched roofs,
many of the houses are much decayed and many are undoubtedly unfit for
habitation. Some houses have no gardens and others have very small space
available. Gutter spouting and down pipes, as well as paving at the foot
of walls, are either absent or defective. Floors are broken; walls, and in
some instances roofs, are cracked and leaky. Ladder stairs of a dangerous
kind lead to bedrooms without back windows, fireplaces or through
ventilation of any kind. Fresh air has no entry save through a small front
window, too often kept closed. A curious feature of these houses is the
low pitch of ceilings. In one instance, at least, rooms are only 5 feet 7
inches high even in the centre. The history of these dwellings seems
to be that they were erected years ago by squatters upon a tract of land
known as The Waste. Finally, a quit rent was imposed by the Lord of the
Manor. The rents payable at the present time by tenants seem fairly high
considering the accommodation afforded. I heard observations to the effect
that these dwellings were inhabited by a thriftless and untidy class. The
nature of the houses, a large number of which were inspected, is such that
it must be very difficult to maintain cleanliness in them and in many
instances, the successful results obtained were remarkable. On the other
hand, some families would not readily be received as tenants elsewhere. Undoubtedly the most serious defect of
housing accommodation in Bourne is the want of yard space, which will be
again referred to under the Head of Sanitary Conveniences and Refuse
Disposal. There has been very little building in the district and of late,
none at all, of houses suitable for the poorer working class. Certain houses in a miserable
condition and at present empty were seen to be undergoing some part of
trivial and superficial repair but not of a kind that would render them
properly habitable. Water Supplies: The town of
Bourne is celebrated for the abundance and purity of its water supply.
Speaking generally, water in this part of the country is drawn from the
Lincolnshire limestone, which, hereabouts, is reached at a depth of about
90 to 100 feet. The flow of water obtained from this source is
extraordinarily copious in quantity, and though apparently varying in the
amount of contained mineral matter, it is generally excellent in quality,
though having the hardness of a limestone water. From the following facts
it is possible to form some conception of the volume of water drawn from
the limestone in the neighbourhood of Bourne. In the vicinity of Eastgate, two small
streams of water may be seen constantly running into the Bourne Eau from
two disused artesian wells. A rough calculation made for me by Mr Agnew,
the acting Inspector of Nuisances, puts the waste constantly going on from
these two bores alone, as being at the rate of 90,620 gallons per 24
hours. It has also to be remembered that there are a number of disused
bores similarly flowing in various parts of Bourne, as well as the bore,
already referred to, as ever copiously spouting in the centre of St
Peter's Pool. Another vast flow is constantly taking
place at the Wellhead as already described. In addition to these constant
outpourings of water, a great number of private bores have been sunk for
the supply of various properties. The number of these artesian wells is
not known, but it is considerable. Besides this, the Bourne Water Company
possesses four artesian wells in different parts of the town, and from
these gives, by natural pressure, constant supply to some 469 houses. Finally, the town of Spalding
(population 12,393) is supplied with water from bores sunk in the Bourne
Urban District on the east side of the town, beside the Manning Road.
Here, I am informed, pumping engines work day and night during the three
summer months. But at other times only for a day or part thereof, or, at
most, three or four days per week. During some periods water flows to
Spalding by gravitation under natural pressure. The deepest bore for the
Spalding Waterworks is, I am informed, about 137 feet. From these facts some estimate may be
arrived at of the vast quantity of water daily drawn from beneath the
Bourne Urban District, in addition to the quantity, probably to several
million gallons, daily running to waste from the same source. The general water supply of Bourne
Urban District is from the mains of the Bourne Water Company or from
private borings, such supply being in either case constant. In not a few
instances I heard complaints (for the most part on the east side of the
town) that water drawn from the stand- pipes provided, is not drinkable.
It is said that the water has an offensive smell and taste, and leaves a
yellowish or brownish deposit in jugs and vessels. The inhabitants of some
cottages at Bedehouse Bank, among them a cowkeeper and milk dealer in a
small way, assured me that for some years they had not been able to drink
the water from their taps but had actually been using for drinking, as
well as for washing milk vessels, the water of the Bourne Eau which is
grossly contaminated. The water complained of was tasted by the Inspector
of Nuisances, and by me, and was found to have an unpleasant and rather
chalybeate taste and smell. I have not been able to procure the results of
recent analyses of water taken from the sources above referred to. Such
analyses as were seen, and they are all some 20 years old, indicate little
more than a trace of iron as present in the water. These analyses have no
doubt been made of water drawn from the bore itself, or close to it. The
water mains in the district are everywhere of iron, and it is known that
many of them are much corroded. Portions of iron pipe shown to me were
seen to be corroded outside as well as within, and in some places eaten
into holes. The ground around these pipes was wet, and they had evidently
been leaking for some time. There is strong local opinion that
Bourne water has an action upon iron water pipes. But whether any
contamination of water occurs through iron water pipes, thus corroded and
perforated, is a question that the Urban District Council, rightly jealous
of the reputation of the water supply of their town, should not fail to
have carefully investigated. Of late years it has rather been the
custom of persons building a house of any considerable size to sink an
artesian well rather than to depend upon the supply given by the Bourne
Water Company. For about £35, or less, a bore can be sunk that can
generally be relied on to give under natural pressure an ample and
constant supply. Such borings have been on an extensive scale. Many of
these bores are not sealed properly, and leakage is freely and constantly
taking place into the ground. Another cause of waste of water is by
defective taps. It is not too much to say that in the course of my
inspection, scarcely a tap was seen that was not leaking. Most of those
seen were leaking freely. Sewerage: The greater part of
the town of Bourne is provided with sewers of some kind. The date of their
construction is not known, and I could hear of no complete plan of them,
but portions of them are probably of some antiquity. Some are of the
barrel arch kind, but many portions have been taken up and replaced by
proper glazed pipe sewers, though the jointing of these is not in all
cases of cement. Sewers thus taken up and re-laid piecemeal at different
times cannot be expected to work always satisfactorily. Through
ventilation is not provided; the fall of the sewers appears to be good.
There is no system of flushing other than by means of water carts. On the
other hand, the sewers are to a large extent kept flushed by the constant
flow of water escaping from bores. Thus the sewer contents are diluted to
a high degree, and the sewage dealt with at the sewage works is estimated
at upwards of 300,000 gallons per day in ordinary weather. The sewage works are situated to the
east of the town. These works, which are paid for out of revenue, were
designed by the Natural Purification Company. At the last moment it was
decided that the large volume of highly diluted sewage at Bourne was not
suitable for treatment by the system proposed and the best that appeared
possible under the circumstances had to be done. In the result, the Bourne
Sewage Works consist of sedimentation tanks. The residuary liquid is
filtered through banks and beds of slag, and escapes into a channel
leading into the Weir Dyke, which, at Guthram, about five and a half miles
from Bourne, communicates with the Forty Foot Drain. It has been asserted
that nuisance is caused in the Forty Foot Drain by the presence in it of
filth from the Bourne sewage works. The Bourne Council assert that by the
closure of certain direct communications between the sewage works and the
Weir Dyke, as well by other improvements, such nuisance has been rendered
impossible. That serious nuisance existed in the past there can be no
doubt, and these works must need constant supervision at all times. There
is question whether this large volume of highly diluted sewage is suitable
for bacterial treatment. The Urban District Council would do well to seek
expert advice with regard to this matter. At my first visit to the Weir
Dyke, the decomposing sewage matter was seen in considerable quantity. My
visit to the sewage works was made after an extraordinary rainfall, when
all was in confusion. A sample of the effluent then drawn was turbid and
yellow. Excrement Disposal: The greater
number of houses in Bourne are provided with water closets, apparently
mostly of the hopper kind. Many houses, however, have only
cesspit privies, and in connection with these much nuisance occurs by
reason of their situation in confined space too near to dwellings, and
owing to the absence of suitable gardens for the disposal of cesspit
contents. At Woodview particularly, objectionable cesspit privies were
seen; these not infrequently overflow on to the path at the back. At
Storey's Cottages, Burghley Street, an objectionable cesspit privy was
found in an outhouse in a confined situation only about 20 feet from the
back door of a dwelling house. Other instances of cesspit privies were met
with placed in outhouses without any light or ventilation. In rows or groups of houses where
these pit privies exist, the number of them is insufficient and they are
often placed in inconvenient situations. The privy accommodation at the
men's and women's bedehouses [the present almshouses in South Street], an
ancient charitable institution, needs attention. I found only one privy,
though having two seats, for the inmates of 24 houses. It should be recorded that the
District Council have made considerable effort to remedy defects of this
kind. Many cesspit privies have been replaced by water closets and their
number is constantly increasing. When sewer connection cannot be obtained,
effort should be made to get these cesspits replaced by some form of
receptacle easily raised and emptied. At present all emptying of cesspits
has to be done by occupier. A night soil cart has been provided by the
District Council. Persons desiring to make use of it may do so upon
obtaining a ticket from the Inspector of Nuisances. But they must provide
horse and labour for the purpose and must have a place for the reception
of privy contents as there is no public depositing place for this or for
house refuse. Refuse Disposal: There is no
system of collection of house refuse and nuisances in connection with the
accumulation of this are widespread and serious. Owing to the close
building that has taken place in the town, many houses are totally
unprovided with yard space. Occupiers in such cases say they have the
greatest difficulty in disposing of their refuse, which has to be kept in
pails. Such pails have, commonly, to be kept in passages close to house
doors. A great number of ash pits are used by
the inhabitants of several, or many, houses in common. Few of these ash
pits are fitted with covers, and many were found containing foul liquid.
At Woodview, there is a brick open ash pit, unlined as far as could be
seen, measuring 16 feet by 7 feet, for the use of inhabitants of a number
of houses. At Abbey Road (Hereward Street), where houses are placed in
blocks of three or four without any garden, there is only passage space
three feet wide between back door and the wall of another building. Here,
refuse has to be collected in pails as well as can be and carried to some
detached gardens about 400 yards distant. In many other places, such as
Burghley Street, and elsewhere, similar objectionable conditions were
seen. In one instance, a large open ash pit used in common by several
households is only five feet from the windows of a house. The only efficient remedy possible
is the adoption of a system of public scavenging which I have reason to
believe would be welcomed by a large number of inhabitants. Slaughterhouses: There are
believed to be seven slaughterhouses in the district. These places are not
registered. One of them is an extensive
establishment doing a large trade and the arrangements here appeared
generally satisfactory. But most of the other premises are of such a kind
that frequent and regular inspection must be requisite to secure that
nuisance does not arise. In one instance, the businesses of
butcher and milk seller are carried on upon the same premises; here the
floor of the slaughterhouse is bad and the place communicates with the
butcher's shop. In nearly all the premises seen, the walls were dirty or
the premises were ill kept, dark, and insufficiently ventilated. In some,
the packing house was not properly screened off. In one slaughterhouse, a
large dog was found. I have pointed out to the acting Inspector of
Nuisances the necessity of keeping these places under supervision. Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops:
There are 17 registered dairies in the district but the present record
cannot be regarded as accurate, some of the persons therein entered having
retired from the business. Some dealers appear to carry on a very small
trade, keeping only one or two cows. Of the two large milk establishments
in the district one, although not of the most modern construction, was
seen to be in a satisfactory condition; the premises were clean and well
kept, and it is stated that considerable structural improvements will
shortly be carried out. In the other, where 27 cows were milked, the cow
houses were low, and without ventilation save through doors. The houses
were filthy dirty, the earth floor being covered deeply with bean straw
and having no drainage save that afforded by the natural slope of the
ground. The dairy forms part of the house but is cleanly kept. Water
supply is obtained from a pump well 20 feet deep situated on a slope about
50 feet from the cow yard. Beside these two considerable milk
premises, there are a number of others mostly having no more than five
cows and some having two or even one. The question as to whether milk
dealers on so small a scale should or should not be required to register
themselves is one that has given rise to discussion, but it would
certainly seem desirable to secure such registration where possible. At some of the premises of small
dealers, the dairies were found to be actually part of the house and
without sufficient light or ventilation. In one cow house, the owner of
which desires to be registered, the floor is of boards set loosely in
liquid filth, which is unable to find escape, and splashes up when the
boards are trodden on. Two cows were found to be kept there. Another cowkeeper (two cows), living
in a miserably dilapidated cottage, was found to have four pans of milk
standing on the floor of the living room. In a third instance, the milk
was found stored in a sort of larder opening from an untidy kitchen. In
addition to milk, the larder was found to contain various articles of
clothing. In all these cases, it is urged
that very little milk is ordinarily stored in the house, and, that in the
case of small struggling businesses such as these, whose owners live from
hand to mouth, a strict interpretation of the Regulations would have the
effect of closing their premises altogether. It is probable, however, that
frequent inspections of these and similar places will secure considerable
improvement. In this district there are no milkshops as that expression is
generally understood. Bakehouses of which there are
about six, are not registered. Several were conspicuously wanting in
cleanliness, floors were dirty and walls in need of lime washing. One
bakehouse was close and badly ventilated, the door opening into a yard in
which barrels of refuse are stored to be taken to pigs. At another
establishment recently constructed the floor was very dirty and a water
closet had been put in a corner of the boiler house, without light or
ventilation. Of offensive trades there are
three, viz. a large fellmongering establishment, a manure works, and a
tallow melting works. The fellmongering is carried on upon the bank of the
Bourne Eau. Though much filth of one sort or another passes into the
stream, little nuisance is caused in all probability to the inhabitants of
Bourne town. The manure works, at which blood is dried and converted into
manure, are said to occasion nuisance in that portion of the town nearest
to them when the wind carries thither the offensive smell given off in the
process of drying. This stench might be mitigated, if not altogether
removed, were the offensive vapour conducted through a proper furnace
before being discharged into the atmosphere, the passing through the
furnace being retarded by means of bafflers. Much complaint was heard of the
offensive stench from the tallow melting works, which are unfortunately
situated in a central part of town. If this work cannot be carried on
elsewhere, measures should at least be taken to render the vapour escaping
less offensive. Nuisance from time to time is caused by pig keeping and
this has occasionally been the subject of direct appeal to the Local
Government Board. Though less frequent now this nuisance still
occasionally recurs. There has been at times a lack of prompt and direct
action by the Council in the past with regard to complaints of this kind
of nuisance. SANITARY ADMINISTRATION
The parish of Bourne, together with
the hamlets of Dyke and Cawthorpe, all once part of the Bourne Rural
District, have since 31st March 1899, constituted the Urban District of
Bourne. The rateable value of the district is
£23,938 5s., and its assessable value £14,267 14s 5d. The amount of the
outstanding debt, being balance of loan contracted for burial purposes and
for the Tongue End Bridge, is £1,758 11s. A 1d rate in the district
produces about £65. The amount of the last rate for general purposes was
2s 4d in the £. The following Byelaws were allowed by
the Local Government Board on 23rd April 1901: With respect to the Cleansing of
Footways and Pavements, and the Removal of House Refuse: Regulations which came into force on
the 1st January 1907 have been made respecting Dairies, Cowsheds and
Milkshops, but there are no other regulations of any kind. None of the
Voluntary Acts have been adopted save the Infectious Disease
(Notification) Act 1889 which was in force in the Rural District when the
Urban District was formed. The adoption of the Act was confirmed by the
Urban District Council on 11th July 1899. The Medical Officer of Health is
William J Gilpin, LRCP Lond, MRCS Eng and LSA, who was appointed by the
Council on the 13th of March last. He receives an annual salary of £20,
half repayable from County funds. Dr Gilpin is also District Medical
Officer for the Bourne District and Public Vaccinator for the Bourne and
Witham districts of the Bourne Union. Having so recently taken up office,
it is not possible fairly to judge the performance of his duties as
Medical Officer of Health. Dr. Gilpin was a member of the Urban District
Council and Chairman of the Sanitary Committee, which positions he
resigned in order to apply for the post of Medical Officer of Health.
Having been for many years in practice in this locality, he should have a
good knowledge of the district and of its sanitary needs. The acting Inspector of Nuisances is
Andrew Robert Agnew, who was elected by the Urban District Council on the
23rd October 1906, at an annual salary of £50. At the same time Mr Agnew
was appointed Surveyor, likewise at an annual salary of £50. Mr. Agnew,
who has no certificate from the Royal Sanitary Institute or similar body,
was for a time clerk to the late Inspector of Nuisances and Surveyor, Mr F
G Shilcock, and had acted as temporary Inspector of Nuisances and Surveyor
since the death of that officer on the 18th August 1906. Upon being
informed of this proposed appointment the Local Government Board, on the
ground that Mr Agnew was not fully qualified by experience and training to
perform his duties, declined to sanction it with a view to the repayment
from County funds of a moiety [half] of Mr. Agnew's salary as Inspector of
Nuisances. Such refusal was further determined by the Council's own
admission that they had received 144 applications from all parts for the
offices, and the qualifications sent in by the applicants were according
to their own showing very numerous and undeniable. (From the Minute Book
it appears that, as matter of fact, Mr. Agnew's name was not in the list
of candidates presented to the Council by the Committee of Selection for
final decision.) Finally, upon further representation
by the Urban District Council, and an undertaking that Mr. Agnew would
present himself for the certificate of the Royal Sanitary Institute, the
Board sanctioned the appointment from the 24th August 1906, conditionally
upon his passing the examination and obtaining the certificate before the
31st March, 1907, and this sanction gives the right to repayment of half
the salary. On the 12th February 1907, Mr. Agnew applied for an extension
of the time in which the certificate had to be obtained by him, on the
ground that his heavy duties as surveyor had restricted his time for
study, but this extension the Board declined to allow. Thus far Mr. Agnew
has not succeeded in obtaining the required certificate. The acting Inspector of Nuisances has
held office for so brief a time, and under such conditions of unusual
pressure that his aptitude for the discharge of his duties cannot be
accurately gauged. Though without any previous training, Mr. Agnew is a
young and active man and seems to be endeavouring to make himself
acquainted with the district. When I first saw him in May last he was
provided with a Register of Complaints. He had also a Dairy Inspection
Report Book but had not begun to keep it. Since then he has been provided
with the books necessary for the due performance of his duties as
Inspector of Nuisances. The Bourne Urban District Council has
no Isolation Hospital of their own. Under an agreement dated 31st May
1900, with the Bourne Rural District Council, the Urban District Council
by payment of an annual rent of £5, and subject to certain arrangements
as to defraying expenses of opening and preparing the hospital and the
cost of maintenance of patients, have the right to make use of four beds,
or more, in the Isolation Hospital belonging to the Rural District Council
on the outskirts of the town of Bourne. This hospital has been
sufficiently described by me in a report issued by the Board in October
last on the Sanitary Circumstances of the Bourne Rural District. The
hospital in question is quite unsuitable for the reception and treatment
of cases of infectious disease, and might, under circumstances, become a
source of danger. NOTE: At the time of my first visit
one of the wards of this hospital was tenanted by a woman and two
children, one of whom was suffering from scarlatina. As it had been
impossible to isolate effectively the child and mother in their own home,
the mother had been induced to bring her children into the hospital where
she was entirely alone and had to attend to the infected and the
non-infected child herself. It had been arranged that food should be
provided for them by the Inspector of Nuisances, and also water for
drinking since, as I have elsewhere pointed out, there is no supply of
wholesome water on the hospital premises. At my visit, the mother
complained that she had not been supplied with water but had been obliged
to use for drinking purposes the foul water from a shallow dip well
adjoining the hospital. I pointed out to the Inspector of Nuisances that
very grave responsibility would be incurred should illness of one of these
persons be referred to the use of this water. There is no disinfecting apparatus for
the use of the district. It is to be hoped that the Urban and
Rural District Councils of Bourne may shortly, in combination, provide
themselves with both these necessary adjuncts to efficient sanitary
administration. The neighbourhood of the town of Bourne suggests itself as
a locality in every way central and convenient for this hospital. As a result of my inspection of the
Bourne Urban District, the following measures appear to me to be urgently
pressing: 1. That an expert engineer be
consulted with regard to the sewage works, in order to ascertain whether,
without large outlay, some more efficient method can be devised for
dealing with the large quantity of dilute sewage discharged here. 2. That some attempt be made to stop
the great flow of water at present escaping into the public sewers from
disused bores. 3. The adoption of some measure
whereby persons boring for water may be compelled to properly seal the
bores. 4. That the Urban District Council
repeal the byelaws imposing upon occupiers the duty of removing house
refuse from their premises and that the Council themselves undertake or
contract for such removal. 5. That the Council require the
registration of all slaughter houses, and that the existing byelaws be
strictly enforced. 6. That the regulations made under the
Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Order be rigidly enforced. 7. That an isolation hospital be
provided in conjunction with the Rural District of Bourne. Such hospital
need not be on a large scale or of a costly kind; it is to be hoped that
sufficient hospital accommodation may with reasonable outlay be provided
and kept in readiness. A proper disinfecting apparatus should also be
provided. 8. That the Medical Officer of Health
and the Inspector of Nuisances keep the books severally prescribed for
their use by the Local Government Board. These officers should give to the
performance of their duties much more time and attention than was devoted
to that purpose by their predecessors. They should also make systematic
inspection of the district. I have to express my thanks to Dr
Gilpin, Medical Officer of Health, to Mr G H Mays, Chairman of the
Sanitary Committee, and to Mr S R Andrews, clerk to the Urban District
Council, for information given to me on diverse occasions. My special
thanks are tendered to Mr Agnew, acting Inspector of Nuisances and
Surveyor, for his assistance during my inquiry. F ST GEORGE MIVART
Go to: Main Index Villages Index
|