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One innovation as far as this Borough is concerned is that
the Council have decided to install a standard grit deposit gauge
in order that measurements can be taken in collaboration with an
adjoining Borough.
Close liaison exists between the Borough Engineer's Department
and the Public Health Department, so that the Sanitary
Inspectors are apprised of any proposals for fuel burning installations
and are thus able to advise upon the technicalities of smoke
prevention before the installations are made.
8. INDUSTRIAL NUISANCES. Considerable attention has
had to be given by the Council and its officers to this subject
and a Special Committee was set up to consider these problems
which have been principally ones of noise, but also included
vibration, dust and effluvia.
Section 313 of the Middlesex County Council Act, 1944, provides
that a noise nuisance shall be liable to be dealt with as
a statutory nuisance under the Public Health Act, 1936, where
any person makes or continues or causes to be made or continued
any excessive or unreasonable or unnecessary noise which is
injurious or dangerous to health provided that it shall be a good
defence in any proceedings in respect of a noise nuisance
occasioned in the course of any trade, business or occupation for
the person charged to show that he has used the best practicable
means of preventing or mitigating the nuisance having regard
to the cost and to other relevant circumstances.
It should be noted that this Section has not the wide application
which the nuisance clauses of the Public Health Act possess,
for in the latter case the qualifying phrase is "prejudicial to
health or a nuisance"; furthermore Section 313 contains a
"defence" clause which is far more reaching than any analogous
clause in the Public Health Act. Nuisances from 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 can be dealt with under the appropriate provisions
of the Public Health Act, 1936. In all cases to which
consideration was given industrial premises have been in close
proximity to residential zones and have demonstrated the desirability
of the two zones (i.e., residential and industrial) being
separated by open spaces. The Council have, therefore, had to
face these problems, many of which are not capable of a ready
solution and regard has had to be paid to the law, the methods
of abatement, the willingness of the industrial establishments to
meet the situation and the susceptibilities of the residents suffering
from the nuisance. It should be admitted at once that the
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