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13
ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION
The outstanding event of the year in regard to atmospheric pollution, so far as the City
is concerned, was the passing into law of the City of London (Various Powers) Act, 1954,
Section 4 of which is designed to make the whole of the City a "smokeless zone". It was
obviously necessary to give owners and occupiers of premises time to make such alterations to
existing fuel burning installations as might be necessary to render them smokeless, and therefore
the Act prescribed that Section 4 should come into operation on such date after the 1st October,
1955 as the Common Council should resolve and, in fact, the earliest possible date 2nd October,
1955 has been fixed.
I was invited to make a short statement on the City of London "Smokeless zone" powers
to the Conference of the National Smoke Abatement Society held in Scarborough in September,
1954, and I think it is worthwhile reporting my statement in full as a concise record of the
efforts which the Corporation have made since the war to achieve smoke abatement in the City.
NATIONAL SMOKE ABATEMENT CONFERENCE, SCARBOROUGH, SEPTEMBER, 1954.
Paper read by the Medical Officer of Health to the Corporation of London.
I have been asked to make a short statement on the subject of the powers recently obtained
by the Corporation of the City of London in the City of London (Various Powers) Act, 1954 to
make the City of London a "smokeless zone", which, as you realise, means a non-smoke
producing zone, because we shall continue to get smoke drifting into the City from the vast
area of the County of London surrounding us.
Perhaps a few words on the history of the Corporation's efforts in this direction will be of
interest as showing how difficult it is to achieve substantial progress in smoke abatement.
From the time the City of London was devastated by enemy action in the years 1940 and
1941, the Corporation began to consider the rebuilding of the City. The contribution of a Medical
Officer of Health to planning of such magnitude is very small, but following a meeting of the
National Smoke Abatement Society in London on 5th November, 1943, I reported to the Public
Health Committe on "Measures for the Prevention of Smoke in relation to Initial Post-war
Reconstruction", and recommended that the Corporation should seek Statutory powers to require
prior approval of heating arrangements in new and reconstructed buildings and to declare smokeless
zones in the City; in accordance with the resolutions passed at the meeting of the National
Smoke Abatement Society. The Public Health Committee, and subsequently the Special (i.e
the Policy) Committee of the Corporation, approved the recommendations, and the Corporation
decided to seek such powers in their next Various Powers Bill. At the same time, the late Sir
George Elliston, a former President of this Society and a member of the Corporation of the City
of London, urged that a District Heating Scheme should be prepared for the rebuilt City.
What was the result of these efforts? A "Smokeless zone" clause and a "prior approval"
clause were, in 1945, included in a City of London (Various Powers) Bill, but there was powerful
opposition to the "smokeless zone" clause, and as the Bill contained other clauses which the
Corporation were anxious to get through Parliament unopposed, the "smokeless zone" clause was
dropped. The "prior approval" clause, however, went through and was included in the City
of London (Various Powers) Act, 1946 in the form of extended powers to make bye-laws under
Section 151 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936 requiring the approval of the Common
Council to be obtained before the installation in new buildings of heating arrangements of any
kind, and before substantial alterations were made in the heating arrangements of any existing
building. It was never found possible to frame bye-laws which the Ministry of Health would
approve. First of all the Ministry suggested that, owing to the difficult coal supply position
and particularly the shortage of smokeless fuel, the time was not opportune for the making of
such bye-laws When the particular circumstances of the rebuilding of the City were emphasised,
the Ministry intimated that they would be prepared to consider, with a view to confirmation,
a series of bye-laws which were not open to criticism on the grounds that they were unreasonable
in the light of existing conditions as to fuel supplies, or that they failed to give adequate and
specific guidance as to the arrangements which would satisfy their requirements. The Ministry
contended that the draft bye-laws were not sufficiently specific, and we never succeeded in drafting
any that were.
As regards a District Heating Scheme for the City, the Corporation appointed a distinguished
consulting engineer to prepare such a scheme, but again it was not found practicable to carry
the scheme into effect. A supply of hot water from an electricity generating station, such as
has been provided in Pimlico from the Battersea Power Station, was not available. Moreover
it was obvious that the rebuilding of the City would not be progressively area by area but would be
sporadic, a large building here, then another a considerable distance away; so that the Corporation
would have been faced with the enormous expense of constructing a heat generating station
large enough, or capable of expansion to a size, to meet an unknown future demand, and miles of
pipes leading initially only to individual, widely separated buildings.
So all our efforts came to nothing. Then in December, 1952, there occured the disastrous
"smog" over London, which created a widespread and insistent public demand that steps should
be taken to reduce the pollution of the atmosphere. The Corporation of the City of London
decided that they would again seek power to declare smokeless zones in the City, and to include
an appropriate clause in a general powers bill which they had in preparation in 1953.
This time the proposal was accorded an entirely different reception; it had an excellent press,
there was little opposition, and what there was was faint-hearted and almost apologetic. The
Bill passed through all stages in both Houses of Parliament, providing, on second reading, an
opportunity for a general debate on atmospheric pollution. The Act received the Royal Assent
on 5th July, 1954.
The City of London is a particularly favourable area in which to establish a smokeless zone.
There is no heavy industry and there is comparatively little residential accommodation. The