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Public Cleansing.—This is carried out by a separate department of
the City Council under the Director of Public Cleansing (Mr. H. Ardern,
A.M.I.Mech.E., F.Inst.P.C.), who has supplied the following notes:—

It is interesting to note that the total has again approached that of the "peak"
year, 1931, when 99,653 tons were collected. In 1932 there was a drop of 5,800
tons and a further drop of over 5,000 tons in 1933. The figures remained steady in
1934 but suddenly rose by 7,200 tons in 1935, and again rose by 2,800 tons in the
year just completed. It can be reasonably predicted that last year's figure will be
at least maintained in 1937 and probably will show a further substantial increase
in view of the considerable influx of visitors to Central London during the Coronation
period. The decreased tonnage in 1932—3—4 coincided with a period during which
there was a considerable amount of empty property in Westminster and this no doubt
mainly accounts for the smaller quantity of refuse produced.
Modernization of Transport.—The Four-Year Programme for the complete
modernization of transport adopted by the Council in December, 1933, has unfortunately
not proceeded at the rate originally estimated; this has been partly
due to delay in delivery of the new vehicles and partly to further tests carried out
with vehicles of more recent design. As the greater part of the City's refuse has
to be collected and the street gullies have to be emptied and flushed during the
night and early hours of the morning, it would be difficult to over-emphasize the
necessity of employing the most silent means of operation, and experiments were
therefore carried out with an electrically operated motive unit for both these
services and a specially designed trailer unit for gully cleansing, also motivated by
an electric battery. The experiments were very successful and two electric motive
units and one gully cleansing unit were purchased. From protracted comparative
tests then carried out on refuse collection it was proved that the operating costs
of the electric unit were practically the same as the petrol units, and the Council
in December, 1936, therefore decided to revise its modernization programme and
ordered 18 electric motive units. Arrangements were made for battery charging
to be carried out at the Council's garage and a special rate for supply during "offpeak"
hours was obtained from the Electric Supply Corporation. Tests have
also been made with several of the latest types of refuse collecting bodies, resulting
in orders having been placed for 11 of the "Direct Mechanical Compression" type
and 7 of the "Moving Floor" type.
Refuse Collection by Container System.—The popularity of this system at large
premises has continued to increase as its advantages have become more widely
known and appreciated. At the end of the year four chassis and 228 containers
were in operation, another chassis was on order, and it was obviously necessary that