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5
Clean air
The Clean Air Act came into force during the year and at the very
end of the year various guiding memoranda were issued by the central
Ministry. The avowed objective of the legislation is to do away, within
the next fifteen years, with all visible smoke except from a few industrial
processes. It is thought that if this can be achieved there might over the
country as a whole be a saving of up to £200 million on material matters
alone, quite apart from the increased health and the saving of hospital
costs which might ensue. The problem is a large one and will require
resolute tackling, but the objective appears to be attainable. Further
details of the clean-air legislation and proposed procedure will be found
in the body of the report.
Staff
There are still vacancies on the establishment for inspectors, but
the scheme for training student inspectors is working well and this is
likely to turn out to be the long-term solution of the problem. During
the year the title of sanitary inspector was changed by legislation to
that of Public Health Inspector. This is the third legislative alteration,
reflecting perhaps not only the changing shades of meaning attached to
words but also alterations in the duties required of the officers concerned.
The first official title, which is referred to in the next section of
this introduction (1856—1956) was inspector of nuisances.
1856 -1956
The prototype of the borough council, namely the Lewisham Board
of Works, first met in 1856 and therefore it is opportune to include in
the present report for 1956 some indication of the conditions one
hundred years previously. Fortunately the first reports are still available.
The Lewisham Board of Works was constituted under the
Metropolis Local Management Act—"An Act for the Better Local
Management of the Metropolis." Lewisham and Penge were connected
and members of the Lewisham Board of Works were nominated by the
Vestry of Lewisham, which consisted of 36 elected members, and that
of Penge, which consisted of 18 elected members. The Lewisham
district comprised the parish of Lewisham (including the district
parishes of Sydenham and Forest Hill) and the hamlet of Penge. The
Board of Works consisted of 27 members of whom 24 were appointed
by the Vestry of Lewisham and 3 by the Vestry of Penge. The jurisdiction
of the Board could be comprised under three heads:
1. the repair and general management of the public highways in
the district,
2. the drainage of the district (both land drainage and drainage
for sewerage purposes), and
3. the sanitary condition of the district, the Board being the local
authority for the execution of the duties and powers of "the
Nuisances Removal Act for England, 1855."