Poor housing conditions in S. Yorkshire

A Yorkshire mining area NEWSLETTER reporter investigate housing conditions. LOSCOE, May 17 legs.

Damp walls, leaking roofs, Life is full of broken-down lavatories, flies Loscoe people. in hat weather rate dancerans particular, worry falls for children ... these are the conditions under which working-class people have to live in this pit village.

Mr. Fred Dimmock told me that, because of leaking roofs, tarpaulins had been fixed to the houses, but the walls were so weak that the tarpaulins blew away pulling more slates off.

Mr. Dimmock's neighbour, Mrs. Smith showed me a damp patch on her wall. Since moving into Alabany Street three years ago, Mrs. Smith's five-year-old daughter has been in hospital five times with a chest complaint.

One woman told me the pipe under her sink has no U-bend and the waste goes straight into the cellar.

Smelly stream

I inspected a nearby stream and found it full of rubble. It smells horribly in hot weather. Women say it is inhabited by rats.

There is a 25-yard gap in the wall at the end of Alabany Street behind which the stream runs. This gap leaves the street open on to a six-foot drop.

Only last week two-year-old Terry Gill fell down this drop and badly cut and bruised his Gorbals tenants form committee TENANTS from Oatlands, the Gorbals, Glasgow, area (featured in The Newsletter recently) have set up a committee to continue their fight against slum housing.

At a meeting held by the tenants a young speaker urged that the fight be taken up inside the labour movement.

He stressed that the fight against slum housing was a fight against landlords. In order to take this up a Labour government should introduce legislation to take over property and bring housing under the control of local authorities.

In Scotland there has been a crisis in the building industry due to a shortage of bricks. Some workers have been laid off for temporary periods.

Planning

Nationalization of the building indusiry and proper planning would prevent such situations arising.

A member of the audience suggested that the tenants unite with the churches, who are carrying out a survey of housing conditions in the area.

The chairman, Mrs. Josephine Collins said the tenants were willing to co-operate with any organisation against slum housing. She pointed out, however, that the ellorts of the church were confined solely to official channels and that tenants had learned by hard experience that this was not sufficient.

The committee will contact trade union branches and the Trades Council for support and Co-operative shops will be asked to display posters announcing the committee's activities.

Gia:

Speaker:

Secretary, Socialist Greet The Newsletter Sunday, June artick Burgh Hall (Lesser Hal Burgh Hall Street (Underground to Merkland St. Station) children —about their health living in damp houses, about the danger from flies and from the stream.

The only people who don't seem to worry are the local councillors.

Commented Mr. Dimmock: "They always promise to rebuild that wall at election times, but you hear no more about it after the voting....' PONTEFRACT, May REPAIRS have been carried out at some of the worst houses in Halfpenny Lane, but this is only after the public. health inspector had been called in and the landlords were threatened with legal action by the Pontefract town council.

But the problem is not solved.

Mr. Ron Downham told me he had received notice lo quit after complaining to the sanitory inspector about his house. Some repairs had been carried out and floorboards had been replaced. But the main beams were still rotten and Mr. Downham showed me a large piece of one beam which had come off in his hand.

No electricity Mr. Downham, a process worker, and his wife have three children aged 6z, 4ž and 14 months. The eldest is ill and is supposed to have a hot bath every day as part of his treatment, but there is no hot water -and no bath-so Mr. and Mrs. Downham have to heat the water in a washer and pump it into a tin bath.

When the family moved in four years ago, the house was lit by gas. Mr. Downham says he paid for electricity being installed himself.

Nearby, Mr. and Mrs. Whitham have eight children. Five boys sleep in one bedroom and three girls in another. Mr. and Mrs. Whitham sleep downstairs.

Once, when she was pregnant, Mrs. Whitham fell through the floorboards and dislocated her shoulder. On another occasion her 12-year-old daughter, Sheila, fell through a hole in the floor.

Here, too, floors have been repaired and walls plastered. But this has been done four or five times in the 12 years that the Whithams have lived there.

Solution

The only solution to the problem of bad housing conditions in Loscoe, Pontefract and all over the country is not hasty patching-up jobs, but complete re-housing at rents working-class families can afford Voters, like those in Loscoe, should not shun Labour. They should help return a Labour government, then fight through organised tenants' associations for the implementation of policies of nationalization of the building industry and land. ¡gow MEETING 14, 7.30 p.m. worries for Mothers, in about their