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52
Oil Burners (Standards) Act, 1960.
This Act came into effect on the 1st January, 1961, and under it
Regulations were to be made requiring oil heaters to comply with
specified standards of safety. Provision is made for the prohibition ot
the sale of oil heaters or component parts which do not comply with
the regulations, and for inspection and testing.
The Act has now been repealed by the Consumer Protection Act.
1961.
The Consumer Protection Act, 1961.
The Consumer Protection Act, 1961, came into operation on the
19th August, 1961, and enables the Secretary of State to make Regulations
in respect of any prescribed class of goods, as to composition or
content, design, construction, finish or packing, to prevent or reduce
risk of death or personal injury, and to secure that goods of these classes
are marked in a manner prescribed, with any necessary warning or
instruction. The duties as regards inspections and prosecutions are laid
on the Council by the Schedule to the Act, which also repeals the
Heating Appliances (Fireguards) Act, 1952, and the Oil Burners
(Standards) Act, 1960.
Noise Abatement Act, 1960.
The Act provides that noise or vibration which is a nuisance shall
be a Statutory Nuisance for the purposes of Part III of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1936, and amends Section 66 of the London County
Council (General Powers) Act, 1936—which already dealt with certain
nuisances of this character within the Metropolitan area, by substituting
for the words "excessive or unreasonable or unnecessary noise which
is injurious to health" the words "noise which is a nuisance", and
extends the application of the Section to vibration nuisances.
The Act does not contain any reference to standards or measurement
of noises which would constitute a nuisance, but leaves it in the very
broadest terms, and thereby permits varying opinions of what does or does
not constitute an actionable nuisance. It does, however, contain a clause
prohibiting the operation of a loudspeaker in a street between the hours
of nine in the evening and eight in the morning, and restricts the use of
a loudspeaker in the highway for purposes of advertising, trade or
business at any other time. The Act does not extend to noise or vibration
caused by aircraft. In its application to London there is a minor change
of the proviso to subsection (1) of the London County Council (General
Powers) Act, 1937, by which references in this Metropolitan Act to
action by "three persons being either householders or occupiers of
premises within hearing of the noise nuisance" is replaced by "three
persons each of whom is the occupier of land or premises, and is in that
capacity aggrieved by the nuisance".
The rigid application of the Act suffers by the lack of any generally
accepted standard, and in the four complaints which have been dealt
with in this year it has been found that persuasion of the offender has
been more practicable than direct official action, and the aim has been
to lessen, or remove where possible, offending noises which have been
the subject of complaint.