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78
CLEAN AIR ACT 1956
During 1958 the detailed survey of the Council's first Smoke
Control Area was completed and the information collated in the
form required, The Council made the Lambeth No.1 Smoke Control
Order on 24th September, 1958 and the Order (together with maps
and financial and other information) was submitted to the Ministry
of Housing and Local Government for confirmation. The total
estimated cost for the No,1 area is £26,000 and although confirma
tion of the Order had not been received by the end of the year,
it will, subject to Ministerial consent, come into operation on
1st October, 1959,
On 16th June, 1958 a combined sulphur dioxide and smoke
filter apparatus was set up at Kennington Secondary School,
Hackford Road, S,W,9. almost in the middle of the No.1 Smoke
Control Area. The results so far obtained seem to justify in some
respects the choice of this area as the Council's first Smoke
Control Area in that there is quite a high degree of pollution.
It has been noted that an increasing number of householders
are turning away from raw coal as a means of space heating and
are in fact making their own individual contribution towards smoke
control by the use of gas, electricity, oil and coke of various
types. Prom the point of view of smoke free air, this is an
excellent thing which it is hoped will continue.
Economic factors play an important part in the Clean Air
Campaign, for there seems to be little doubt that a smoke free
atmosphere would be much more speedily and voluntarily obtained
if it were possible to produce a more reactive type of coke in
large quantities freely available at a price more nearly approximating
to that of the summer price of the cheapest quality house
coal than the prevailing cost of existing premium smokeless fuels,
A number of industrial plants have been installed in the
Borough during the year and here again the trend away from raw
coal is evident especially in the larger plants where oil firing
is most frequently employed.
One point, although perhaps small in itself, but which
nevertheless does call for considerable tact and discretion, is
the complaint of the occasional bonfire in the garden. The
complainant invariably quotes "Clean Air" to the officer