February 18, 1955

THERE were some people in Redditch living in "damnable circumstances", Councillor JH Taylor told last week's meeting of Redditch Urban District Council's estates committee.

The sub-committee had been amazed at the quality of some of the tenants who were living in such circumstances.

One member said: "I have never seen such places. I'm a little bit ashamed that these conditions should have existed before the present council came into office. I was amazed at the attempts being made to live in such places.

"Tenants living in such terrible slum properties in Redditch are as respectable and as courteous as any ratepayer."

The clerk, Mr W Irving Watkins, said a programme of slum clearance had been decided on early in 1938 but they were stopped by the ministry because of the imminence of war. These were the places they were going to put right now.