View report page

30
In London, Section 66 of the London County Council (General
Powers) Act, 1937 has for many years given Metropolitan Borough
Councils power to deal with noise as a nuisance under the Public Health
(London) Act, 1936, where a person made or caused to be made or continued
an excessive or unreasonable or unnecessary noise which was
injurious or dangerous to health.
The Noise Abatement Act, 1960 amended this Section to conform
with the new meaning of noise nuisance.
Local authorities are now able to require the abatement of a
noise or vibration nuisance (not necessarily injurious or dangerous to
health) by the service of an abatement notice on the person causing the
nuisance, and, if the Notice is not complied with, it can be enforced
by proceedings in a Magistrate's Court.
Apart from action by a local authority, any three or more
occupiers of land or premises who are aggrieved by a noise or vibration
nuisance may make complaint direct to a Magistrate.
Complaints are received in the department from time to time
regarding noise nuisances, mainly arising as a result of industrial
work. Remedies are generally secured without recourse to legal action,
but in one case legal proceedings were instituted against the occupier
of a factory causing a noise nuisance in operating their works.
It should be noted that, in the case of noise or vibration
caused in the course of a trade or business, it is a defence in any
proceedings to show that the best practicable means have been used for
preventing it and counteracting its effect.
Section 2 of the Act deals with the use of loudspeakers in
streets. It prohibits their use for any purpose between 9 p.m. and
8 a.m. except in the special circumstances defined in sub-section 2 of
the section, and at any other time for advertising any trade, business
or entertainment, with the exception that between noon and 7 p.m. a
loudspeaker fixed to a vehicle used for the sale of perishable foodstuffs
may be operated to announce that the commodities are on sale:
the loudspeaker is, however, not to be so operated as to give reasonable
cause for annoyance to persons in the vicinity.
PUBLIC BATHS
The Minister of Health (Circular l/6o) has requested that
reference should be made to any public swimming baths in the Borough.
The Council have provided indoor swimming pools at the Public
Baths situated in North Kensington at the junction of Lancaster Road
and Silchester Road.
The original building was constructed about seventy years
ago and no major structural alterations have since taken place. There
were four swimming pools, two of which have now been discontinued.
The swimming pools now available are as follows:-
(1) The large mixed swimming pool.
(2) The small mixed swimming pool.
The large pool has an area of approximately 4,500 square
feet and the smaller one is one-third of this area.s.
Both pools are available for swimming in the summer months,
mid-April to mid-October, but during the winter months only the large
pool will be available to the public.