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INSPECTIONS AND COMPLAINTS
The work of the public health inspectors based on principles of good environmental
hygiene remains the same: pure water, clean food, clean air, adequate
shelter and the removal of conditions inimical to healthy surroundings.
Forty-seven thousand, eight hundred and ninety-seven visits were made to a
variety of premises including dwelling-houses, business and industrial premises and
places in which food is handled. Arising from defects and shortcomings found on
these visits, 802 informal and 345 statutory notices were served resulting in repairs
and sanitary improvements being carried out; legal proceedings were instituted in
ten instances resulting in fines of £18 with £48 6s. Od. costs.
Requests and complaints which totalled 5,287 were received on a wide range
of matters. There were 1,300 blocked or defective drains notified, and this large
number is no doubt due to the widely-known fact that a skilled service is available
free of charge. This service is essentially a public health service intended to prevent
hazards to public health, but it is also of great benefit to owners who experience
difficulty in obtaining trade labour at short notice to deal with the considerable
nuisance which arises from obstructed drains.
Reference is made elsewhere in the report to the number of requests for the
destruction of wasps' nests and complaints of infestation by rats and mice.
(See Statistical Tables 43 and 44.)
NOISE
The Noise Abatement Act, 1960, makes provisions in respect of the control
of noise and vibration and enables a local authority to deal with it as a statutory
nuisance in accordance with the procedure in the Public Health Act, 1936. It
makes specific provisions to deal with loudspeakers in the street, and also enables
three or more persons aggrieved by a noise nuisance to make a complaint to a
Justice of the Peace.
Powers for local authorities to deal with the playing of noisy musical instruments,
amplifiers, etc., and the keeping of noisy animals, and noisy hawking, are
given by Good Rule and Government Bye-Laws made under the Local Government
Act, 1933.
Noise continues to be an increasing problem and often a difficult one to solve,
especially as any unwanted sound may be described as noise.
The most common cause of complaint arises from the proximity of dwellinghouses
to industrial premises and many cases receive and require several visits,
frequently at night, to establish whether a nuisance exists.
Noise can often be eliminated by relatively simple measures involving only the
co-operation of the persons responsible, but sometimes it can present an extremely
complex problem. In such cases the attention of an acoustics consultant rather
than a system of trial and error is the wiser course because a considerable amount
of money can easily be spent without any real improvement.
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