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including radio, loudspeaker reproduction from a church, musical instruments, an electricity supply
transformer, garages, a club, milk lorries, building and engineering works, pneumatic road drills,
noisy tenants, banging doors, dogs and cats. The complaints were not always justified but where upon
investigation nuisances were found to exist these were nearly all abated or reduced after informal action
by the sanitary inspector or streets nuisance inspector. In some cases the Department was unable
to take direct action and the details were referred to other authorities possessing the necessary powers.
Atmospheric Pollution.—There were 47 complaints alleging nuisance from smoke, grit or fumes and
three hundred and twenty-eight observations and inspections were made. Forty-nine premises were
involved and these were of a wide variety of types including commercial undertakings, blocks of
flats, a hotel, a nursing home, private dwellings and the two electricity generating stations. The last
named still remained a serious problem but in general the nuisances were abated, although sometimes
only temporarily, after informal action. This included the giving of advice by the sanitary inspectors
on stoking and the best use of boiler house plant at business premises. There was one prosecution for
the emission of black smoke from a store in Oxford Street. As the magistrate was not satisfied that
there had been negligence by the Company concerned he dismissed the case but said he appreciated
the difficulty in proving such negligence.
The final report of the Government Committee on Air Pollution, which was published towards the
end of November, deals comprehensively with the causes of the many forms of air pollution and submits
proposals for remedying the position. Air pollution is shown to be a social and economic evil of the
first magnitude which in a year costs £250 million and wastes at least 10 million tons of coal. A
"continuous programme urgently and insistently carried out" is essential and the report contains
recommendations designed to reduce the smoke in heavily populated areas by 80 per cent, in ten to
fifteen years. The Public Health Committee having previously made arrangements to ensure that their
Smoke Abatement Sub-Committee should give the report immediate consideration, were able at their
December meeting to make positive suggestions as to possible action by the Borough Council. As
a result the Council decided among other things
(1) to ask the Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing Joint Committee :—
(a) to make representations in appropriate quarters that it be made compulsory to fit efficient
filters to the exhaust pipes of all motor vehicles.
(b) to consider as to the setting up of a Joint Committee in Greater London to cover
the whole Metropolitan Police area.
(c) to urge that the responsibility for the administration of any new legislation respecting
smoke abatement in the County of London should be placed upon the metropolitan borough
councils.
(2) to invite the boroughs of St. Pancras, Hampstead and Paddington to join them in urging the
British Transport Commission to accelerate their plans for modernising the motive power on
main lines approaching London termini.
(3) to hold a Smoke Abatement Week.
Local propaganda to encourage the use of smokeless fuel was continued and the attention of firms
having boiler installations was again drawn to the courses of instruction for stokers held at technical
schools. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research having proposed a scheme for increasing
the number of instruments for the daily measurement of sulphur dioxide and suspended solids in
air in the metropolitan area, the Council decided to co-operate by installing and maintaining two such
instruments at points in the Borough in addition to the existing two deposit gauges and three sets
of lead peroxide apparatus, which are subject to monthly readings.
From the reports published by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research summarising
results it seems that St. Marylebone is not nearly so seriously affected by atmospheric pollution as
many other districts. However there is much room for improvement, particularly in the vicinity of
the Generating Stations. So far as domestic chimneys are concerned, essentials for the success of any
scheme for smoke prevention are an adequate supply of suitable smokeless fuel and sufficient accommodation
to store it.
The modern tendency to extend the use of oil fuel is giving rise to increasing complaints alleging
nuisance from fumes and the smell of oil. It is not always easy to decide how far some of these
complaints are justified and to prove a nuisance is frequently very difficult. Nevertheless the owners
of suspected oil burning plant have almost invariably shown a ready desire to co-operate and try to
remove any cause for complaint. Where adjustment of the burners has not had the desired effect, an
improvement has in some instances resulted from the use of " additives " to the fuel oil.