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The Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Act, 1961, and regulations made thereunder,
make further provisions for maintaining or restoring the wholesomeness of
the rivers and other inland or coastal waters of England and Wales in respect,
inter alia, of sewerage and sewage disposal.
Certain other provisions in respect of drains and sewers are made in the
Middlesex County Council Acts, 1956 and 1961.
The Borough Engineer and Surveyor is responsible for sewers under the highways,
apart from trunk sewers, which are the responsibility of the Greater London
Council. During the year, two connections of foul water sewers to the deep main
trunk sewers were made at Brimsdown. Various works for the prevention of flooding
have been carried out in three areas and improvements have been made to
Salmons Brook at Church Lane, Edmonton.
Some rural parts of the borough are not sewered, the houses having water carriage
systems discharging to cesspools or septic tank disposal systems. The council
provides a cesspool emptying service at a nominal charge.
The Health Department undertakes the clearance of sewers on private property
and 1,502 stoppages were cleared.
Repair of drains and private sewers is the responsibility of the users, and 17
notices were served for the repair of drains and 16 for the repair of private sewers.
By the end of the year 15 of the former had been complied with, and 12 private
sewers had been repaired by the council in default of the owners, from whom the
cost was recovered.
The function of sewage disposal was vested in the Greater London Council
by Part V of the London Government Act, 1963. Two disposal works are within
the borough, one at Deephams and the other at Ponders End. Large sludge drying
beds handling the sludge from the Deephams works are sited in the north of the
borough at Enfield Lock. The Ponders End works, which are scheduled to be
taken out of operation in due course, are the only remaining local authority works
in the East Middlesex drainage area. The diversion of the flow is not intended to
take place until improved pumping capacity is available at Deephams and the
first phase of the extensions to the Deephams Works is completed. A full report
on sewage disposal is made in the Annual Report of the Director of the Department
of Public Health Engineering of the Greater London Council.
For certain information in this report I am indebted to the Borough Engineer
and Surveyor.
PUBLIC CONVENIENCES
Under Section 87 of the Public Health Act, 1936, a local authority may provide
public sanitary conveniences in proper and convenient situations.
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