Visits of inspection with respect to the sanitary arrangements of the military camps at Houghton Regis and at Biscot were reported upon by the Inspector of Nuisances to the Luton Rural District Council at a meeting on Thursday [December 23rd, 1915]. The Inspector stated that at Houghton Regis the conditions were, on the whole, satisfactory, but at the military huts at Biscot the conditions were very unsatisfactory.

At Biscot the floors, and in some cases the bedding, were in a very dirty state, and it was difficult to see how things were to be altered under existing conditions, as the approaches to the huts were in most cases inches deep in mud. Within the last seven or eight weeks there had been removed to the hospital 16 cases of diphtheria, three of which were billeted in adjoining houses.

Some of the huts are in the borough of Luton and others in the rural district area, and Mr Pickering stated that the suggestion made by the Council at a previous meeting for a joint inspection on behalf of the two authorities, had not been carried through as the Inspector to the Borough Council would not agree, his view being that they might raise a hornets' nest about their ears.

The condition of things was no better than on his previous visit, and the place was in a deplorable state. There were no paths by the side of the huts except those built on the roads that had been laid out, and to get into the huts the man had to wade through inches of mud.

The Clerk, Mr William Austin, observed that it was reported that 5,000 more artillery were coming to Luton after Christmas, and where they were going and what was going to happen, he really did not know. It seemed to him that what was wanted in the vicinity of the huts was that there should be some properly constructed roads and paths, and so he thought they had better communicate with the War Office as to the condition of things found there. It was no use mincing matters, because they might have an outbreak of disease that might desolate the whole neighbourhood.

The Council adopted the suggestion of the Clerk.

[The Luton Reporter: Monday, December 27th, 1915]