[Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, Colne Valley (Combined) U.D.C.

  • Colne Valley (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, Colne Valley (Combined) U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/62 (page 12)
    SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE AREA Water Supply The Huddersfield Corporation are the Statutory Water Under- takers for the Colne Valley area with the exception of Scammonden, a widely scattered hamlet of approximately 115 houses to the North of the District. The water mains of the Statutory body do not yet cover the whole area, and water in supplied to properties from other sources. In Marsden water is supplied to 209 houses by firms havdng works in that aiCa, and by the Council to one of its housing estates comprising 144 houses. In Slaithwaite 913 properties are supplied with water by the Dartmouth Estate. In Linthwaite a firm of manufacturers supply water to some 40 houses and these are gradually being transferred to the Statutory Undertakers supply. In addition to these main private supplies there are in the area in- numerable small private supplies serving groups of from 20 houses down to single dwellings. A total of 63 samples of water have been taken during the year, 59 being for bacteriological examination and 4 for plumbo-solvency examination. The 4 samples taken for plumbo-solvency were reported to be satisfactory. Of the 59 samples taken for bacteriological examin- ation, 20 were reported as satisfactory, 4 as suspicious, and 35 as un- satisfactory. The large number of unsatisfactory samples is accounted for by the fact that ‘series’ samples from the source of supply to the dwelling houses have been taken covering five private water supplies. Resulting ;from the unsatisfactory samples, negotiations arc proceeding to transfer the dwelling houses on these unsatisfactory sup- plies to the Statutory Undertakers mains, and ip one instance, a supply serving 144 houses, temporary chlorination is being undertaken until the transfer can be accomplished. There is considerable delay on the part of the Statutory Water Undertakers in providing the necessary mains, and the high water rate -and the cost of the main, which is charged to the owners of properties, is retarding the progress of eliminating these un- satisfactory water supplies. Drainage and Sewerage Large parts of the district, particularly in the o ter areas, are unscwered, and in these parts the conservancy system of drainage is very limited. The small sewage disposal plant in course of construction for a hotel, at the end of last year, has now been completed. During the year, the West Riding of Yorkshire Rivers Board obtained Court Orders requiring the Council to cease causing pollution of the River Colne with effluent from the Marsden, Slaithwaite and Crimble sewage works. The Jndge suspended operation of the Orders for twelve months in order to give the Council time to prepare a sewage disposal scheme for the (listrict. The Council’s Consulting Engineers are preparing a report regarding the relative costs of sewage disposal by the provision of a new works in Colne Valley as compared with the cost of treatment of the whole of the sewage from the district by the Huddersfield Corporation. Negotiations with the Corporation were still in progress at the end of the year. During the year 22 inspections of sewers were made, and 4 nuisances found were remedied.