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15
period in a number of areas, ranging from country districts to heavy industrial areas. It will, of
course, be appreciated that the conclusions which can be drawn from a single year's observations are
necessarily somewhat limited."

The Town Clerk and the Medical Officer of Health subsequently interviewed the Chief Generation
Engineer (Operations) of the London Division of the British Electricity Authority. They reiterated
the Council's concern at the further complaints of nuisance from the emission of grit from the Aberdeen
Place and Lodge Road generating stations and drew attention to the special observations kept by
the Council over a period of a year which showed definitely that there were larger deposits of grit
in the vicinity of the generating stations than at the control on the Town Hall. It emerged that the
Electricity Authority had themselves been keeping observations, and they did not deny that close
to the generating stations there was some pollution of the atmosphere. It was stated that the
Electricity Authority had been doing all that they could to improve conditions by increasing the
efficiency of the existing grit-arresting plant at the two stations and had made arrangements to burn
only the best available fuels; that they had discontinued burning coke breeze at these stations;
that the grit plant serving two of the boilers at the Lodge Road Station had been modernised in 1950,
and that four further boilers were to receive attention during 1951. These two stations were intended
to be stand-bys, and when more of the new generating stations throughout the country were brought
into use it might be possible to reduce their hours of running, particularly during the summer.
Questioned about the substitution of modern grit-arresting plant for the existing plant in these
two stations, the Electricity Authority's representative said that such a course would be against
their policy. It would take three years to obtain and instal the equipment, and that would mean
merely a diversion of manpower and materials from new stations to old ones. It was considered
better to get the new and more efficient stations working as soon as possible and so reduce the demand
on the old stations. It was hoped to discontinue generation at Aberdeen Place in the reasonably near
future, but the outlook regarding Lodge Road was uncertain.
The results of this discussion were reported to the Council who, in view of all the circumstances,
accepted the assurance of the British Electricity Authority that they would continue to do all in their
power to keep to a minimum the emissions of grit from the two stations. At the same time, the Council
decided to continue observations and to review the whole position should that become necessary.
To meet the suggestion of the Superintendent of Observations, Atmospheric Pollution Research,
the gauge at Welfare Centre No. 2 was transferred to a site at Lord's Cricket Ground towards the
end of the year.
An appeal by the Ministry of Fuel and Power to the managements of the larger undertakings in
St. Marylebone to send their boiler engineers and attendants to special courses of instruction met
with an encouraging response. Invitations were issued to firms who use 100 tons or more of coal
and/or coke per annum and, as a result, a total of 35 enrolments for the course on boilerhouse practice
and 26 for the fuel technology course were made at the two technical colleges nearest to the Borough.
The object of these lectures and demonstrations was to raise the standard of boilerhouse operation,
thus ensuring the economical and efficient burning of fuel with a consequent reduction of the nuisance
caused by smoke and grit emission.
Poisons.—The names of 79 traders were on the Council's list of persons entitled to sell poisons included
in Part II of the Poisons List (Pharmacy and Poisons Acts, 1852 to 1941), the premises concerned
numbering 91.