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27
advice can be offered and the necessary Information
obtained at a third visit.
It is not proposed to make any further attempt at this
survey stage to interview any householder missed by these three
contacts and to include in the final statistics the premises
concerned by an adjustment on average. This may seem arbitrary
but it is probable that 95 per cent. of the dwellings can be
accurately reported on in 9 months while the remaining 5 per
cent. of "hard cases" could easily run away with a further 3
months of valuable time.
If and when the Order is confirmed every reasonable
step will be taken to inform all persons resident in the area
of the position and particularly those who were not actually
seen during the survey.
New Installations
The system under which the Borough Engineer and
Surveyor passes on information of all proposed new buildings,
large conversions, etc. has continued to work effectively. The
number of architects or builders who have been contacted by
this means has totalled 85 and the enquiries to them resulted
in 27 notifications of new installations of over 55,000 B.T.U.
rating. Of these, only two cases requested prior approval of
their proposals and submitted full specifications and details.
A further nine notifications were made without any form
of enquiry from my department and the Public Health Inspector
noticed and reported two cases where work was in progress without
prior notification. In only one of these cases was notification
necessary.
The system does at least bring to the notice of
architects, builders and the trade generally the requirement of
Section 3 of the Clean Air Act that the local authority must be
informed before the larger installations are effected. I have
little doubt, however, that this requirement is not yet widely
appreciated, that numbers of new boilers are being installed
without notification and that some time will elapse before the
building trade generally accepts the fact that, just as they
automatically notify drainage and building alterations, so they
must let us know of new boilers and furnaces.
It may be that some effective publicity from a central
authority would be useful in this matter and at this time.