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AIR POLLUTION AND SMOKE CONTROL
Leyton Borough Council have now had their first Smoke Control Order confirmed by
the Minister of Housing and Local Government. The Order, which comes into operation
on the 1st October, 1961, relates to an area of some 295 acres in the south-western
part of the Borough, bounded by Windsor Road and Ruckholt Road to the south, Brewster
Road, Vicarage Road, Park Road and Marsh Lane to the north, Leyton High Road to the
east, and the Borough boundary to the west. (Please refer to map on page 24 )• It
includes the Crescent Road Re-development Area and the Council's new housing development
at Ive Farm, and affects some 1,776 householders, 28 industrial undertakings and
49 commercial concerns. The Order itself specifies certain exemptions, and other
exemptions are allowed by Government orders already in force.
After the operative date it will be an offence, punishable by a fine, for the
occupier of any building of any kind in the Smoke Control Area to allow smoke to be
emitted.
All owners and tenants of affected premises have been given full information in
writing as to the conditions under which grants towards the cost of replacing or
adapting existing fireplaces will be made, together with a schedule of works required
at the particular premises. Owners and occupiers of premises were advised to liaise
with each other, for the grant can be paid to whoever does the work.
Applications for the Council's approval of the work the owner or occupier wishes
to carry out to enable that person to comply with the requirements of the Order are now
being received at the Public Health Department, and works of adaptation are being
carried out under the supervision of the Public Health Inspectorate.
Mobile exhibitions have been stationed within the Smoke Control Area for the
purpose of displaying approved appliances, and these will be repeated later in the
year. These exhibitions are supplemented by similar displays at the shop premises at
280 High Road, E.10., adjoining the Council's Public Health Department.
It is hoped that as a result of this publicity all the persons whose dwellings
require adaptation within the Smoke Control Area will have undertaken the work by the
time the Order becomes operative on the 1st October, 1961.
The Chairman of the Public Health Committee, Councillor P.W.Marshall, and the
Chief Public Health inspector, are the Council's representatives on the London and Home
Counties Clean Air Advisory Council and the Standing Conference of Co-operating Bodies
set up by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, with which Leyton is
co-operating in the investigation of atmospheric pollution.
Daily observations continued throughout the year. The recording apparatus operated
by the Public Health inspectors is situated in the offices in Sidmouth Road; a summary
of these observations is reported to the Public Health Committee bi-annually. The
tables which follow in the statistical section show the results recorded during the
twelve months ended March, 1961, divided into summer and winter periods. The average
results for the five year period ended March, 1960, are also shown for comparison.
Concentration of smoke is expressed in milligrams per 100 cubic metres and sulphur
dioxide in parts per 100 million.
The average concentration of smoke for the year ended 31st March, 1961, was 15
milligrams per 100 cubic metres, compared with 21 milligrams for the previous five
years, a decrease of 28.6%, whilst the concentration of sulphur dioxide for the same
period was 6.7 parts per 100 million, compared with 7.5 parts for the previous 5 years,
a decrease of 10. 7%.
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