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Since 1958 when the first smoke control order was made approximately one-third of a million
pounds has been paid to owners and occupiers of 26,000 dwellings in the Borough towards the cost of
adapting fireplaces to make them capable of burning authorised fuel satisfactorily. The costs would
have been much higher had there not been already a steadily growing trend towards the use of
alternatives to bitumastic coal. Taken overall conversion grants were paid in respect of only 36% of
the dwellings in the Borough. The effects of the clean air policy isperhaps one of the most obvious
environmental improvements in the last decade. The clear view one now gets from such high spots
in the Borough as Alexandra Palace contrasts remarkably with the hazy smoky atmosphere of the era
before the mid — 1950's.
Section 9 of the Clean Air Act 1968 strengthens the powers of enforcement of smoke control by
making it an offence to acquire or to sell and deliver unauthorised solid fuel for use in a building in
a smoke control area unless the building or fireplace is exempted. This provision wilI come into
force on 1st April 1969.
Furnace Installations
23 notifications were received in accordance with section 3 of the Clean Air Act 1956 where it
was proposed to install new furnaces. These were examined and where necessary discussed with the
installation engineers. The Department was satisfied that the final proposals provided for installations
which would meet the requirements of the Act that they should as far as practicable be capable of
being operated continuously without emitting smoke when burning the fuel for which they were
designed.
Chimney Heights
20 notices were received under section 10 of the Clean Air Act 1956 of proposals to construct
new chimneys. Where appropriate these were discussed with the applicants and agreement was
reached in each case by which chimney terminal heights were fixed that should provide for adequate
dissipation of the exhaust gases so avoiding the risk of harmful local concentrations of air
pollutants.
From 1st April 1969 the control of heights of chimneys serving furnaces will be extended under
section 6 of the 1968 Act but section 10 of the 1956 Act will continue to apply to chimneys not serving
furnaces.
Investigation of Atmospheric Pollution
Haringey continues to co-operate with the Ministry of Technology by operating four instruments
at suitable sites in the Borough for recording the daily level of smoke and sulphur dioxide in the
atmosphere. In addition to giving information on local trends, the data forms part of information
collected by the Ministry to show national distribution and trends in atmospheric pollution. The
readings obtained depend to some extent on varying local meteorological conditions and at times these
may give rise to deviations from the general trend.
The graphs show the average January and July readings for the past 10 years for the two sites
in the Borough that have remained unchanged during that period. The fairly stable lower winter smoke
figures for the last four years reflect the improvements resulting from the increasing use of smokeless
fuels throughout London. Although there is an indication of some lessening in the sulphur dioxide
concentration, it cannot be said that the problem of the eradication of this pollutant has yet been
solved.
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