[Report 1970] / Medical Officer of Health, Woodhall Spa U.D.C.

  • Woodhall Spa (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1970
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1970] / Medical Officer of Health, Woodhall Spa U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/16 (page 2)
    To The Chairman and Members of The Urban District Council of Woodhall Spa, Mr, Chairman, Mrs, Farmery and Centlemem, I have the honour to present my annual report for 1970. Healthvm.se this year was favourable to Woodhall Spa with a rise in births and no appreciable increase in deaths. Closer liaison between the family doctors and the County Council doctor running the Child Health Centre has resulted from the removal of the Centre to the premises of Dr s' Robertson and Armour. Housing for the elderly has been the. major undertaking of the authority and continued into 1971 before any of the new batch were ready for occupation. Whilst the number of eligible applicants, applying present criteria, may seem to be small, it is likely that the survival period of tenants will increase, so that there will be a continued demand for new building of this type. Furthermore, as this is a relatively new facility to the elderly, the total demand has not, in all probability, been realised. On the other hand the number of jobs available to potential council family houae tenants in the Spa is limited, and so the demand for orthodox housing is quite modest and hardly warrants building at the present time. The increments of pDopmlation that occur in excess of the natural increase, are of those able and willing to commute by car, or those who come to the Spa in retirement. In1 general, the native population, as it grows up must, like that of the surrounding country, either commute or emigrate to find work. Since bringing goods and services to small communities is expensive, the incentive to the less wealthy is to migrate nearer the centres of work and supply. Voodhall is not likely in the foreseeable future to attract new industry. It is app>arant that we are in the midst of a social revolution which has been going on for decades and the end of which cannot yet be foreseen. Social structures are being swept away and we do not, as yet, have much idea of the way their surviving functions will be administered. It is typical of this that more and more new minor functions are being imposed on local councils which are ill-equipped to perform them, and which themselves are doomed to early dissolution. • i Certain matters of policy regarding the Spa, which are not new to the Council are, however worth recording for the readers of this repDort. Much of the housing in the District is of the large Victorian type of family house, whilst an increasing proportion of it is less suitable to id resent day needs without extensive conversion works. Unless these proxDerties are brought ug> to conform with the present needs their life will be limited and this is reflected in their current market prices. There is at present some support from the R.A.F. families and this may continue for a long time - or it may not, since in the field of defence, change is an essential weapon. There is, therefore, a case for generoue consideration of