Report on Home Visits by Assistant housing officer – Tenancies commencing Feb 1971

No of home visits = 87

“      “     “     revisited = 18

The names and addresses of elderly persons were notified to the Secretary of the Livingston Old People’s Welfare Council.

One Gentleman offered to deliver copies of “newsflash” to his neighbours. This information was passed to Editors.

Six tenants (breadwinners) were found to be unemployed. They had relinquished their jobs on coming to Livingston and had been unable to find employment here.

There were few complaints made this month. Storage heaters in the Ladywell area have proved troublesome and people complain at the length of time they have to wait for repairs.

Ladywell housing in the 1970s
(Ladywell 6 Housing Alderbank LDC/IN/209)

One or two criticisms have been made and these have been passed on to the appropriate department. The transport position continues to be under fire and one tenant complained that the information given to them by Glasgow overspill was misleading because it state that there were plenty of buses to and from Glasgow but omitted to say that it takes 1 hour 55 minutes to travel there. There was also one complaint that the Department of Employment & Productivity in Glasgow had inferred there was plenty of employment available in the Livingston area – this, the tenant had found to be untrue. One tenant complained that she had found she had to pay 9d (old pence) per packet more for her babies (she has twins) milk and on checking with the Health Visitor at Craigshill, it was established that the previous M.O.H did not approve the proprietary baby foods being sold at the Welfare Clinic and this policy has been carried on. In this case, the cost to the tenant was quite considerable.