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14
Factories and Workshops.
A close relationship is kept between the Sanitary Inspectors
and the Factories' Act Inspector. Three notices issued under the
Factories' Act called for action by the Local Authority, and were
all complied with. There are in all 165 factories in the district,
mainly situated in the Cray Valley, and these are mostly light
industries.
It was not possible, during the period of the war, to maintain
the routine work applicable to the 1937 Factories' Act, which was
designed to improve hygienic conditions in factories and workshops.
There is, therefore, an accumulated amount of work still
to be done.
Appendix 4 shows tabulation of Inspections and Defects.
Outworkers.
No lists of outworkers were received from the occupiers of
factories in the Urban District during the year.
Smoke Abatement.
Five hundred and thirty-three observations have been made
during 1948, and reports have been submitted thereon.
The Council installed in September a deposit gauge at St.
Mary Cray, and a monthly analysis is kept. The average monthly
amount of solids collected during the period September/December,
1948, was equivalent to a deposit of 16J tons per square mile.
The month to month fluctuations in deposited matter are
often the result of variations in weather, and a long period of
observation, preferably five years, is needed before reliable conclusions
can be drawn about the average level of atmospheric
pollution in the district, or about the rate at which it is being
produced. There is, however, evidence of nuisances arising from
factory effluvia, a matter which is under active consideration by
the Local Authority.
Shops Acts.
In 1948 not all of the Inspectors were Shops Acts Inspectors.
Seventy inspections were made, but there were no serious irregularities.
A summary of the work of the Shops Acts Inspectors
shows the following :
Inspections 70
Absence of Statutory Forms 2
Ventilation Defects 1
Inadequacy of Sanitary Conveniences 1
Inadequacy of Washing Accommodation 4