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(57)
FACTORIES ACT, 1937.
SECTION 54 - BASEMENT BAKEHOUSES.
Section 54 of the Factories Act, 1937, imposes certain duties
upon the Borough Council with regard to the closure or certification
for fitness for use of basement bakehouses.
"Underground" bakehouses, as they were then known, were first the
subject of special legislation in 1901, when Sections 97 to 102 of the
Factories & Workshops Act, 1901, were devoted to their improvement.
This Act prohibited the establishment anew of underground bakehouses,
laid down standards of cleanliness etc., for existing bakehouses and
required certification as to fitness by the local authority. The 1901
Act envisaged the alteration of underground bakehouses in order that
they might be brought into line with the requirements of the day as
regards "construction, light, ventilation and all other respects".
The Factories Act, 1937, deals with "basement" bakehouses (as they
are now termed) in Section 54. This Section defines a basement bakehouse
as a "a bakehouse any baking room of which is so situated that the
surface of the floor is more than three feet below the surface of the
footway of the adjoining street or of the ground adjoining or nearest to
the room" and requires that:-
(1) No basement bakehouse shall be established anew;
(2) No basement bakehouse may be used as such unless certified by
the local authority under the 1901 Act;
(3) If the use of the basement bakehouse is discontinued for a
period exceeding twelve months, it must not be used
again.
(4) Every local authority shall examine all basement bakehouses
between 1st July, 1938, and 30th June, 1939, and in
every fifth succeeding year.