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80
As mentioned last year, the success of the programme of Smoke Control
Orders depends to a large extent on the ability of public utilities and
private contractors to cope with the necessary conversions of fireplaces
within the prescribed period of time and also on the availability of smokeless
fuels. Up to the present, Westminster has been fortunate on both
these points and it is hoped that the remaining programme will not be
jeopardised by any difficulties in these directions.
In December, 1963, the City Council received a further Circular from
the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, based on the Government's
recently published White Paper on Domestic Fuel Supplies. This
Circular indicated that the changing pattern of gas production in the
country has affected the Government's estimates of the availability of
solid smokeless fuel supplies over the next few years. In the Circular
the Ministry of Housing and Local Government made various suggestions
as to measures to be adopted in regard to future smoke control areas,
and this advice is being followed by the City Council.
Grants towards adaptations or alterations
Owners or occupiers of domestic premises in a Smoke Control Area
may apply for a grant towards the cost of any necessary alterations to,
or the replacement of, their existing equipment, to enable them to use an
authorised fuel. The work must have the approval of the City Council
and the expense must be incurred after the confirmation of the Order
but before it comes into operation. The amount of grant which can
be claimed is 70 per cent, of the total cost incurred; forty per cent, of
this total is subsequently recoverable by the local authority from the
Central Government. The Council is empowered, in certain cases, to
pay the full cost of conversion.
Smoke Control (Exempted Fireplaces) Order, 1959
This Order came into operation in July, 1959, and exempts from the
provisions of Section 11 of the Clean Air Act (the Section which provides
for the designation of Smoke Control Areas) those furnaces installed
after 31st December, 1956, which are equipped with mechanical stoking
apparatus but do not burn pulverised fuel, as long as they are operated
and maintained so as to minimise the emission of smoke and burn the fuel
for which they were designed.
Two proprietary types of appliances are granted similar exemption
under the Order, namely the solid fuel "Ductair" unit, and the "Fulgora"
slow combustion stove (used for burning wood shavings, etc.).
Mechanically stoked furnaces capable of working as smokelessly as
those exempted by the Order, but which were installed before
31st December, 1956, can also be exempted individually on similar
conditions.