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17
A joint Sub-Committee of Housing and Public Health met during
the year and considered the subject on the following lines:
(1) Propaganda.
(2) Availability of smokeless fuel.
(3) The question of how far we might request that science teaching
in schools should include atmospheric pollution.
(4) The desirability of making bye-laws.
(5) The intermittent pollution created by domestic chimney
fires.
(6) The issue of a questionnaire regarding the use of smokeless
fuel by domestic consumers.
It will be seen that in fact the Sub-Committee really dealt with the
question of the pollution caused by domestic smoke and not by industry.
Action was taken to emphasize the need for making available sufficient
smokeless fuel. The question of making bye-laws was deferred because
the whole subject is at present engaging official attention and the matter
of the questionnaire was left over until a later date.
Sewerage.
Large-scale plans have been approved for re-laying the St. Mary's
Lane sewer to Bury Farm Works and the Ingrebourne sewer to the
Riverside Works in Dagenham. Subsequently of course the re-laying
of the St. Mary's Lane sewer will have repercussions on the capacity of
the Bury Farm Works itself to deal adequately with the increased flow
and hence some extension to the Works themselves will doubtless be
necessary.
The situation which necessitated the large-scale works did not arise
in a day and has in fact been the subject of consideration for some time.
The very rapid housing development in the district has possibly
accentuated the urgency of remedial measures if the said development
was to proceed smoothly, but even apart from that it may well be that
some work at any rate would have been required.
It should be noted that the re-laying of the Ingrebourne sewer will
be effected on lines designed to form part of the proposed regional
sewerage scheme and the capacity provided is therefore in excess of
that likely to be necessary by the development of the Hornchurch district
alone. It is difficult to comment upon the future sewage arrangements
of the area since if the regional scheme is to achieve fruition—and this
would certainly seem to be the scheme of choice—authorities other than
Hornchurch will naturally be involved.
Conversion.
During the year one house—"Busy Bee," Bryant Avenue—was
joined to the sewer, half the cost of converting the pail closet involved
being borne by the local authority.