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The area suggested for the first smoke control area is that part
of Slade Green north-east of the railway line and contains 983 properties;
595 being Council dwellings, 346 private dwellings, 10 shops constructed
by the Council, 26 other shop premises, and 6 Church buildings and
schools. The Health Committee have been much exercised in the course
of their deliberations by the lack of assurance that adequate supplies
of smokeless fuels other than coke will be available and have not been
too happy that, in the main, authorities will have to rely on coke as
the main source of smokeless fuel for some years to come. At the time
of writing, application has been made to the Minister of Housing and
Local Government for preliminary approval of the Council's proposals
for their No. 1 Smoke Control Area, In due course, arrangements will be
made for the maximum amount of publicity to be given in the area
concerned, so that no resident affected by this Order, which it is
proposed will come into operation in the Autumn of I960, will be without
all the information which he may require. Publicity measures will
include public meetings, exhibitions and the distribution of explanatoryleaflets.
In 1956, the South East London Mass Radiography Service issued
a report on the operation of the service in a report entitled "No Time
for Complacency" and, although no hard and fast conclusions could be
dram from this in regard to the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in
this area, it was evident that a sufficient reservoir of infection was
present to raise the question of the advisability of carrying out a
concentrated mass radiography survey. The Councils of Crayford, Bexley
and Erith have now appointed a joint committee to carry out such a
survey in the Spring of 1960 and a great deal of preparatory work will
be necessary in the Autumn of 1959. A house to house visitation will
need to be made which may mean as many as 10,000 visits in the Urban
District alone. Tuberculosis is a waning disease and it is hoped that
this concentrated attack will contribute towards its final eradication.
The work of the Bexley, Erith and Crayford Home Safety Committee
continued during the year with steady propaganda in the interests of the
reduction of accidents in the home. It is hoped that this work may be
greatly increased in the future, although this would entail a larger
expenditure than has been possible in the past. Both the Local Authority
and the Local Health Authority have the power to make grants for this
purpose. The Fabrics (Misdescription) Regulations of 1959 are to be
welcomed in this connection in that they prescribe new standards of noninflammability
for textile fabrics, to which the Fabrics (Misdescription)
Act of 1913 applies, namely, textile fabrics to which is attributed the
quality of non-inflammability or safety from fire, or any degree of that
quality. The Act places the responsibility on the local authority, who
have been considering how the stringent British Standards tests prescribed
by the Regulations could best be carried out. It is likely that they are
too complicated to be carried out in the Health Department and the Council
are considering the possibility of submitting samples of fabrics to one or
other of the testing houses, recommended by the Board of Trade, who would
be prepared to undertake such work on behalf of local authorities.
4.