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ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
Rag Flock and Other Filling Materials
Rag Flock and Other
Filling Materials
Act 1951
The purpose of the Rag Flock and Other Filling Materials Act 1951, and
the Rag Flock and Other Filling Materials Regulations 1961 and 1965, is to
secure the use of clean filling materials in upholstered articles and other
articles which are stuffed or lined.
Local authorities are required to register premises where filling materials
are used for upholstering, the stuffing and lining of bedding, toys, etc.
At the end of the year eighteen premises were registered to use filling
materials. Sixteen visits were made to these premises and conditions were
found to be satisfactory.
Offensive Trades
Section 107
Public Health Act 1936
In addition to the trades listed by the Act, a local authority may by order
declare other offensive trades.
No " offensive trades " were operating in the borough during the year.
Inspections and Complaints
The public health inspectors paid 59,830 visits to premises, including
dwelling 'houses, business, industrial and food premises. The slowing down
of the clean air programme had, of course, the effect of reducing the number
of visits to premises in connection with the adaptation of appliances. However,
increased publicity and encouragement from the Government in the
sphere of home improvements led to a sharp increase in the number of visits
made by inspectors to premises which might prove suitable for conversion.
Many matters were resolved without the necessity of serving notices,
although it was found necessary to serve 303 informal and 279 statutory
notices, which resulted in repairs and sanitary improvements to dwellings
being effected. Legal proceedings were instituted in fifteen cases.
Complaints and requests for visits numbered 10,295. Of these 2,457 were
notifications of blocked or defective drains. Although owners are themselves
responsible for clearing drains, the Council provides a service
designed to eliminate in the shortest possible time what may constitute a
hazard to public health.
Noise
In recent years there has been a gradual change in the public reaction to
noise. Press and television give wide publicity to extreme oases such as
aircraft noise in the vicinity of airports or traffic noise from new road
systems. Noise from a small factory may be very much less in total, but
the annoyance to residents in a limited area may be as great as in the
more widely publicised cases. Complaints regarding relatively small installations
formed the greater proportion of noise complaints received during
the year.
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