[Report 1967] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard R.D.C.

Liskeard (England). Rural District Council.

Date:: 1967

Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1967] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

17/28 (page 15)

Camping and Caravan Sites. During 1967 a new Caravan Site Licence was issued in respect of a Site for 20 caravans in the parish of Pelynt. By the end of the year the con¬ ditions of site licence which include tree planting, provision of water stand pipes, roads and footpaths, were completed. As reported in 1966, the first Site Licence in the Rural District was granted for a permanent residential caravan site, again in the parish of Pelynt. This site, which has been provided with all the amenities and has a first-class lay-out, is operated very satisfactorily and the caravans have been occupied mostly by retired people. In addition to communal toilets, etc., many of the vans have been fitted with their own water closets and drainage systems. Efforts were made during the year to finalise the lay-outs of certain sites for which licences had been granted and some results were achieved in this direction. The sites generally have all been provided with adequate roads and sanitary facilities, but it is the question of lay-out which has proved difficult to achieve. In some instances caravans have had to be removed and chalets erected so that space was made available for siting the vans in accordance with the conditions of the licence. In the case of one site a swimming pool was in operation during the year and this was provided with a filtration plant and drip feed chlorina¬ tion equipment. The water has been tested periodically and the chlorine content was found to be satisfactory. On another site steps were in hand for the construction of a swimming pool and this should be completed before the 1968 season. It is becoming a general practice for this facility to be provided on caravan sites and, of course, it will provide additional work for the department in that frequent checks have to be made on the water to ensure adequate treatment and residual chlorine content. The Council has not insisted on the provision of shower bath facilities on caravan sites, but public demand for them has resulted in these being provided on all the larger sites. The weather during the summer of 1967 was not particularly dry and therefore there was not the demand for tenting on unauthorised sites which occurs during hot summers. The control over tenting sites is still com¬ pletely inadequate in that land can be used for 42 days without a site licence and without the provision of proper amenities. The only action that a local authority can take is when a Public Health nuisance occurs and, in practice, this is always difficult to prove. There is in the Rural District a colony of gipsies resident for a period after which they move on to other parts. Arrangements were made by the Council for an area of land to be levelled off at Foredown, Pensilva, so that the gipsies can site their vans in a confined area without having to spread them over the moorland. The caravans have their own chemical closets but they have to carry water supplies from some source to the site. It is obvious to me that at some future date some authority will have to provide a small site with the necessary sanitary facilities for the gipsies in this district. Food. (1) Meat Inspection. Slaughterhouses. No applications were received for the licensing of slaughterhouses in the district and most of the meat consumed continued to be obtained from the Abattoir of the Fat Stock Marketing Corporation which is situated within the Borough of Liskeard. The latter authority employ a full-time authorised Meat Inspector and therefore a comprehensive