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CLEAN AIR ACT, 1956
The above Act deals with the control of dark smoke, smoke from furnaces, smoke
control areas and special cases of smoke emission, which include special processes to be
dealt with under the Alkali Act, colliery spoil-banks, railway engines, vessels and
Crown premises.
It also makes provision for the establishment of a Clean Air Council for England
and Wales.
Certain sections of the Act came into operation on the 31st December, 1956,
including those relating to the height of chimneys and to smoke control areas. The
remaining provisions came into operation on the 1st June, 1958, and included those
relating to the prohibition of dark smoke from chimneys, measures for dealing with
grit and dust from furnaces, abatement of smoke nuisances and the application of the
Act to railway engines, vessels and Crown premises.
With regard to the making of smoke control areas, any local authority may make
an Order, which must be confirmed by the Minister declaring the whole or any part of
its district as a smoke control area. Subject to any stated exceptions and limitations,
the emission of chimney smoke in such an area, on any day, is an offence unless the
emission was caused only by the burning of an authorised fuel.
If the owner or occupier of a private dwelling which is in, or will be in, a smoke
control area, has to incur expenditure for adapting his heating arrangements the local
authority shall repay him seven-tenths of the cost, four-tenths of which is recoverable
from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
In 1958, the Council passed a resolution to make the whole of the Borough a
smoke control area within 10 years. At the request of the Ministry of Housing and
Local Government, local authorities had to submit to the Minister their proposals
with regard to the making of smoke control areas for the next five years. The Council
decided that all that portion of the Borough, lying to the south of the railway line
from the Borough boundary in the west to the North Circular Road, and thence south
of the North Circular Road to the Borough boundary in the east should be included
in this programme.