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sufficient to prevent smoke, grit, dust or gases from becoming
prejudicial to health or a nuisance. This is the only provision
in the Clean Air Act for reducing the harmful effects of gases,
e.g. sulphur dioxide, emitted from chimneys.
As the Section only applies where plans have to be sub
mitted in accordance with building byelaws it follows that buildings
which are exempt from byelaw control, e.g. new schools con
structed by the County Council, are also exempt from the pro
visions of this Section. The attitude of the County Council to
smoke control is not particularly enlightened and in my opinion
this exemption is not justified.
Cases have occurred where upon rejection of plans because
of the inadequate height of a chimney shown thereon, revised
plans showing no reference to a chimney have been submitted. On
completion of the building, however, a steel chimney of inadequate
height has been provided. As chimneys of this type are
not subject to building byelaws and therefore, not to Section
10 either, the local authority is unable to take any action.
The Section makes no provision for requiring a higher chim
ney when a furnace with innocuous flue gases, e.g. agas furnace,
served by a low chimney is replaced by a different type of
furnace, e.g. an oil fired furnace, with much more heavily
polluted flue gases.
There is a need, therefore, not only to close existing
loopholes in the Section but also to widen its scope. Both
objects could be achieved by relating the Section to the installation
of new furnaces, notification of which to the local auth
ority is already obligatory under Section 3 of the Act, rather
than to the submission of plans for byelaw approval.
Plans submitted for byelaw approval are passed to me by the
Engineer and Surveyor for a decision on this particular point.
It is usual for consultations to take place with builders or
architects before plans are submitted, thus ensuring that an
agreed chimney height is incorporated in the plans at the time
of submission.
During the year five plans were examined for this purpose
and in every instance the proposals were satisfactory.
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