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15
Heating Appliances —Fireguards.
The Consumer Protection Act, 1961, superseded the Heating Appliances (Fireguards) Act, 1952, but
the Heating Appliances (Fireguards) Regulations, 1953, were re-enacted without amendment. In
previous reports mention has been made of the fact that auctioneers can still legally sell heating
appliances which do not comply with the Regulations, provided that they act on behalf of private
individuals and not as agents for someone whose normal business is the selling of heating appliances.
This loophole in the Act leads to administrative difficulties and in some degree defeats the aim of
legislation designed to safeguard the users of these appliances from accidents. The Council raised the
matter with the Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing Joint Committee who made representations to the
Home Office seeking to amend the legislation by including the sale of heating appliances by public
auction. The Secretary of State, however, did not consider the introduction of amending legislation
on this subject justifiable.
Regular inspection was made of appliances exposed for sale by retailers. No new heaters were
found which failed to comply with the statutory requirements but some thirty secondhand appliances
were found to be defective and these were dealt with informally.
Hairdressers and Barbers.
The Council's Byelaws regulating these establishments came into operation on 18th December,
1955. There are in the Borough 157 registered hairdressers and barbers; regular inspections were
made and conditions generally were found to be satisfactory.
Pet Animals.
The Pet Animals Act, 1951, provides for a system of inspection and annual licensing of pet shops
by local authorities, a fee of 10s. being payable for each licence, nine of which were issued during
the year. A few of the licensees keep puppies and other mammals for sale but mostly they deal in
cage birds, goldfish and tropical fish. The premises concerned were kept under observation by the
public health inspectors, who made fourteen visits and inspected weekly the stalls licensed to sell
pets in the street markets. Conditions under which the livestock was kept were reported as satisfactory.
The Animal Boarding Establishment Act, 1963, comes into operation on the 1st January, 1964,
and requires animal boarding establishments to be licensed by the Council on payment of a fee. The
Act allows the Council to specify on the licence such conditions as they deem necessary and grants
powers of inspection to ensure that these conditions are observed by the licensee. At present none
of these establishments exist in the Borough.
Poisons.
At the end of the year the names of fifty-four 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, 1933-1941), the
number of premises concerned being sixty-five. Details are given in Table 14, page 36.
Protective Helmets.
The Motor Cycles (Protective Helmets) Regulations, 1963, came into operation on the 18th
November, 1963. These Regulations amend and consolidate previous legislation and prescribe the
type of helmet which may be sold or hired to motor-cyclists. The sale or hire of a helmet not
conforming with the Standard constitutes an offence under the Road Traffic Act, 1960.
No sub-standard helmets were found at the five premises concerned in the Borough.
Public Conveniences.
There are in the Borough ten conveniences and three urinals for men and seven conveniences for
women, a full list of which appears under Table 15, page 36. The hours of opening are from 7.40 a.m.
until 10.0 p.m. except at Oxford Circus where the conveniences are normally open until 11.0 p.m. and
until midnight during the Christmas shopping season, when large numbers of people come to see the
Oxford Street and Regent Street illuminations at night.
All conveniences have attendants, other than at Violet Hill public gardens and the three urinals
which are cleansed by a"flusher"who visits them at least twice daily. The attendants work on a
two-cycle shift system and an extra man and woman are employed on the morning shift at Oxford
Circus so that if necessary they can be called upon for emergency duty elsewhere. The usual supervision
was exercised over the conveniences and urinals, and the free washing scheme with paper
towels and liquid soap, now well-established over the last 15 years, continued to be extremely popular
with the general public. The Borough Council, having decided to abolish the penny charge for the
use of water closets, the completely"free"service is due to come into operation on 1st April, 1964.
Staff problems again caused concern, with shortages occurring during staff sickness and holiday