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15
In the field of general propaganda a leaflet was distributed through
the kind assistance of the Treasurer and the Housing Manager to general
ratepayers and Council house tenants. Widening the field of direct
propaganda by this means is exceedingly valuable in providing a background
of information against which the inevitable effects of the Clean
Air Act will in due course tend to be more easily understood.
Clean Air Act:
The Clean Air Act represents a signal step towards the ultimate goal
of clean air but it must in truth be said that the signal is at present still
at distant. Not only is the Act still to become operative in many of its
requirements but the public has still to be educated to the point when they
will themselves demand action rather than be content to remain passive
participants in a scheme which they do not fully understand and concerning
which they are not really interested. The initial smoke control
area is an enlightened gesture but only when such an area or its subsequent
counterparts deal with industrial and domestic pollution on the
major scale can the harvest of the Act really begin to be gathered.
The supply of smokeless fuel and its cost cannot fail to continue
to influence the demand and the public outlook.
Sewerage.
The first stage of the Tngrebourne Valley Sewer was completed
during the year at a cost of approximately £150,000 between Harold
Wood and Suttons Pumping Station. This forms part of the Regional
Drainage Scheme and is designed ultimately to take part of the flow
from Harold Hill and the Nags Head drainage area of Brentwood, in
addition to that part of Hornchuich which it now drains. These
additional flows cannot of course be taken until the second stage of the
Ingreboume Sewer from Suttons Pumping Station to the Riverside Works
is completed and the Riverside Works itself further extended.
The length of sewer recently laid is approximately 4| miles long
and comprises 990 yards of 36" diameter; 5,330 yards of 33"; 760 yards
of 30" and 160 yards of 21" diameter; part of the works being in tunnel.
The contract for the first part of the extension of the Bury Farm
Sewage Works was completed at an approximate cost of £80,000. It
included the construction of a main pumping station, grit channels,
settling tanks, humus tanks, sludge beds and a large diameter percolating
filter. This is the first stage of a large scale extension to the Works which
will result in the eventual employment of sludge digestion.
Conversion.
During the period under review 1 and 2, Druces Cottages, and 1, 2
and 3, Knights Cottages, Hacton Lane, were converted to main drainage,
the Council paying 50% of the cost under Section 47 of the Public Health
Act, 1936.
Cesspools.
The Surveyor was authorised to deal with the emptying of certain
cesspools at periods of under 6 but not under 4 weeks.