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Provided that if the noise is occasioned in the course
of any trade, business or occupation it shall be a good
defence that the best practicable means within the
meaning of the said Act of preventing or mitigating
it have been adopted.
(3) Nothing contained in this section shall apply to a
railway company the Transport Board or any
statutory undertakers for the supply of water gas or
electricity or their respective servants excercising
statutory powers or to any mechanically propelled
vessel on the Grand Union Canal.
(4) Nothing in this section shall affect the powers of the
Council or the Council of a Borough to make byelaws
under Section 249 of the Act of 1933.
(5) Section 56 (Noise nuisance) of the Act of 1930 is
hereby repealed.
While factory owners, on their attention being drawn to
the nuisance from their factories, have always been found to
be willing to co-operate in an endeavour to secure reduction or
elimination of the noise, the solution is not always easy, and
considerable expenditure is often involved. The circumstances
generally call for much technical knowledge of the inspectors,
and tact and understanding are necessary throughout in dealing
with this question.
It may be added that in making these inspections and
observations regarding complaints of noise, no noise-measuring
instruments have been used, the amount of noise being gauged
by ear alone.
DUST.
During 1938, 504 observations of factories were made
regarding the emission of dust. Section 92 (1) d. of the Public
Health Act, 1936, enacts that any dust or effluvia caused by any
trade, business, manufacture or process, and being prejudicial
to the health of or a nuisance to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood
may be dealt with as a nuisance. This was new to
Public Health law and whilst it was not necessary to serve such
a statutory notice during the year the section is a useful one.
Nuisances from dust emission have been abated by such
as the following means:—
(1) Provision of filters of the dry bag type.
(2) Spraying of coal with water prior to unloading.
(3) Provision of air return pipe to a cement store where
the cement is conveyed by pneumatic means.
As with noise, this type of nuisance is often not easy to
overcome, and in many cases the remedy is costly.
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