VILLAGE OF SHACKS

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 June 1928, Page 2

VILLAGE OF SHACKS

INSANITARY ESSEX HOMES.

The British Ministry of Herflth recently asked the Ongar Rural Council for observations on the sanitary condition of Pear Tree Green, an Essex village of shacks, made from sugar cases, orange boxes, and old motor-car bodies, which has arisen in the parish of Doddinghurst. The rise of Pear Tree Green had been a. source' of anxiety to the late council for three years. The village has been admitted to be an eyesore to the countryside, but its people have proved so ingenious that every effort to cut short its growth has failed. The Ministry’s request for “observations” followed the receipt of a letter from Mr W. Parrish, a resident of Pear Tree Green, in which he stated that numbers of families were crowded in small wooden houses with inadequate sleeping and sanitary accommodation, and alleged that many of the lints had no foundation, that many of the people relied upon duck ponds for drinking water, that tuberculosis was prevalent, and that there was a grave risk of an outbreak of infectious disease.

A member of the council admitted that the allegations were true, and added : “The medical officer and the sanitary inspector have condemned the huts, but owing to a difference of opinion among a sub-committee which inspected the huts nothing has been done.” There were rows of shanties, many of them no more than Bft long and 6ft wide, and yet housing whole families. There were 40 or more in all, and only here and there was a brickbuilt bungalow or a hut of lath and plaster. ‘‘l complained of the Renditions chiefly for the sake of my child,” Mr Parrish said to a newspaper correspondent. “I feel that if fihese shacks are allowed to be used there will be a terrible outbreak of disease. It is only a month or two since the school had to be closed to stop a spread of infection, and things may get worse at any time. I was one of the first to come here, and I built a bungalow to plans approved by the council Few of these huts have been approved, and I think I have a just grievance, too, on the ground that the value of my property is being allowed to depreciate.” Mr P. Pearse, the sanitation inspector, has had many bitter experiences of Pear Tree Garden. “The people come from East End districts of London,” he said, and such disease as exists has been imported from there. The council is hampered because most of the owners declare that the huts are temporary structures, and the council's out-of-date by-laws will not allow it to deal with the trouble effectively. There is also the problem of finding accommodation for ejected families. “When I try to enforce the law I am generally met with threats, and have even had a gun pointed at me. The general feeling of the council, 1 believe, is one ol relief that this state of affairs has come to the knowledge of the Ministry.”

Land is cheap in Pear Tree Green. An acre mav be bought, it was stated, for £25.