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Legislation.—Clean Air Act, 1956.—The main purposes of this
Act, which was given the Royal Assent on 5th July, 1956, are :—
(i) To prohibit the emission of dark smoke from chimneys,
railway engines and vessels,subject to certain qualifications;
(ii) To prohibit the installation of new industrial furnaces
unless they are capable, as far as practicable, of being
operated without emitting smoke ;
(iii) To require that the emission of grit and dust from existing
industrial furnaces shall be minimised, and that new
industrial furnaces burning pulverised fuel or substantial
quantities of other solid fuel shall be provided with grit
arresting equipment ; and
(iv) To empower local authorities by order, and subject to
confirmation by the Minister concerned, to declare " smoke
control areas " in which the emission of smoke from chimneys
will constitute an offence.
" Local Authority," so far as London is concerned, is defined
in Part II of the Third Schedule to the Act as the sanitary authority
and not the County Council, provided that (a) both the County
Council and the Sanitary Authorities shall be Local Authorities for
the purposes of powers relating to research and publicity (Section
25) ; (b) if in a special instance the sanitary authority so requests,
the County Council may enforce any of the provisions of the Act
in lieu of the sanitary authority ; (c) the duty of enforcing the provisions
of the Act in relation to any such premises not beir.g premises
within the Port of London as are occupied by a sanitary authority,
shall be performed by the County Council, and for the purposes
of performing their duties under this proviso the County
Council may act as if they were the Local Authority and the county
were their district.
Section 1. (The prohibition of dark smoke from chimneys).
This makes emission of dark smoke from a chimney, including
domestic chimneys, an offence. The emission itself is an offence
and there is no necessity to prove that a nuisance is being caused.
Defence : (a) Lighting up from a cold furnace ;
(b) some unavoidable or unforseeable failure of the
furnace or equipment;
(c) use of unsuitable fuel, suitable fuel being unobtainable.
Departmental duties. Regular and frequent observation of all
chimneys in the Borough.