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91
Defective W.C. accommodation 41
Depective walls, floors, ceilings, etc. 28
Defective and insufficient lighting 27
Want of seating accommodation 3
Notices to be exhibited or amended 433
Two shopkeepers were fined during the year for contraventions
of the provisions of the Shops Acts regarding closing hours.
DRAINAGE
During the year there was no lessening of work in this branch
of the department's duties. Some 3,461 visits of inspection were
made to underground drains in course of repair. It was not
necessary to serve so many statutory orders as in previous postwar
years. Of 380 Orders served, 147 had to be done in default
of the owners.
KEEPING OF ANIMALS.
In spite of the large increase in the number of pig and poultry
keepers during and since the war, there have been few complaints
lodged regarding nuisance. Bye-law powers, relaxed by government
order, during the war, have now been reinstated, and this
will help to further control those who have given trouble in the
past.
OFFENSIVE TRADES.
There are but few registered, and during the year there has
been no cause for complaint.
POLLUTION OF RIVERS AND STREAMS
During the year 379 inspections were made to ascertain if
any evidence of pollution or obstruction was apparent in the
watercourses within the Borough and in addition samples of the
waters were taken for analysis.
Oil was found to be the most frequent polluting material, and
in those cases which were traced the offenders had little idea
that in disposing of waste oil down the nearest drain, they had
polluted a stream. Waste oil should not be disposed of by way
of surface water drainage.
Another cause of pollution is the connection of sink, bath
and lavatory basin waste pipes to the surface water drains.
It should be remembered that all surface water drainage in
the Borough is discharged into streams, and it is' an offence to
permit a polluting material to enter surface water drainage
systems.