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11
SECTION C.—SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES
Sanitary Inspection.
The Borough is divided into five areas each of which is dealt with by a district public health
inspector. Inspection of dwelling-houses is summarised in Table 6, page 33.
Excluding rat and mouse infestations, 1,179 complaints were received and details of the 1,017
various nuisances detected and remedied are shown in Table 7, page 33.
Notices.—Intimation notices numbered 255, and 37 of these were followed by the service of a
statutory notice to secure abatement of nuisances. In addition, ten notices were served under
Byelaws made under the Metropolis Management or Public Health Acts.
Legal Proceedings.
Details of legal proceedings under the provisions of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936, are
given in Table 9, page 34.
Noise.
The Noise Abatement Act, 1960, which came into operation during November, provides that a
noise or vibration which is a nuisance is a statutory nuisance and thus one which can be dealt with
in a magistrate's court. The Act does not, however, recognise any form of nuisance which did not
exist before. Forty-five complaints of noise were received and these involved thirty-nine alleged
nuisances. Extensive engineering works and operations on demolition and building sites, involving
the use of pile-drivers, mechanical excavators and other heavy equipment, continued to be undertaken
in the Borough, and most of the complaints were of noise coming from these, particularly late at
night and during week-ends. The remaining complaints concerned a wide variety of supposed causes,
including radio and speech amplifiers, loading and handling of milk bottle crates, noise from factories
and workshops, a refrigerator, noisy neighbours, clubs, road works, telephone and fire alarm bells,
garages, traffic and a lift. 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
Public Health Inspectors or the Streets Nuisance Inspector.
Pigeons.
For the purpose of abating or alleviating nuisance, annoyance or damage caused by pigeons, Section
121 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936, empowers the Council to arrange for the seizure or
destruction of these birds in excess of such numbers as the Council consider reasonable. Accordingly,
a pigeon catcher is authorised to operate, under the direction of the Medical Officer of Health, at places
in the Borough where nuisance is being caused. During 1960 twelve complaints of this type of
nuisance were investigated but it was only found necessary to refer eight cases to the pigeon catcher.
Water.
Although at two blocks of flats and two office buildings water is obtained from private wells, the
chief source of a constant supply throughout the Borough is from the mains of the Metropolitan Water
Board whose Director of Water Examination has kindly provided the following information :—
" The water supplied by the Board to your Borough is derived from the River Thames. The
water is purified in the Board's reservoirs at Staines, Littleton and Walton and filtered and
chlorinated at the Board's works at Barn Elms, Ashford Common, Kempton Park and Hampton.
The water has been of excellent hygienic quality throughout 1960."
I he average results of chemical and bacteriological analyses of the water leaving the works concerned
are set out in Tables 11 and 12, pages 34 and 35.
The number of dwelling houses supplied from public water mains is 24,356, with an estimated
population of 69,137. No stand-pipes are in use and the remaining dwelling-houses, namely two blocks
of flats comprising 267 residences, obtain water from the private wells referred to above.
There was a complaint from a block of flats about water obtained from a private well. Samples
from the flat concerned were examined bacteriologically and chemically and found to be wholesome
and satisfactory. It is the practice of the department to keep these wells under observation and
sample their waters every six months. The Council's Bacteriologist's reports for 1960 were
satisfactory.