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101
(Part Manor House Ward) was received from the Department of
the Environment during the year and the Orders will become
operative on 1st July, 1972. The work in connection with installing
smokeless forms of heating is at present in progress and
grants are being made. The areas affected embrace approximately
2,276 acres and 9,597 premises.
A survey of three areas in Chislehurst Ward, St. Paul's Cray
Ward and Eden Park Ward, which it is hoped will be brought
under smoke control at the end of 1972 was well under way by
the end of 1971 and sufficient information has been obtained to
enable a report to be prepared and submitted to the Health
Committee early in the New Year.
As the objectives of a General Improvement Area are the
improvement of the houses and the environment, it was agreed
as a matter of policy that all future General Improvement Areas
should be brought under smoke control at the outset in order to
keep air pollution to a minimum. Consequently that part of the
Penge East General Improvement Area not already under smoke
control comprising 203 premises, was surveyed and an Order
made so that it could be established concurrently.
Very few complaints of nuisance from the emission of industrial
smoke and fumes were received during the year, but smoke
from garden bonfires and the burning of waste material and
felled trees on sites that were being cleared for re-development
was a source of annoyance to residents. Because of the transient
nature of the nuisance it is ordinarily possible only to take
informal action in these cases.
Strict control is exercised over the installation of new industrial
plants and large central heating boilers to ensure that only
plant is installed which is capable of being operated without
emitting smoke. All new chimneys constructed to serve boilers
etc. are now required to be of sufficient height to ensure effective
dispersal of the effluent gases.
Special investigations were carried out during the year in
connection with complaints concerning grit and dust caused by
the mechanical handling of gravel and ballast at a railway goods
yard and solid fuel at two coal depots. Although some improvements
have been effected problems of this nature are not easily
resolved. The premises in question are being kept under observation.
Routine measurement of air pollution has continued at four
stations within the borough, but one does not have to produce
figures to show that there has been a marked reduction in pollution
levels over the years, because the benefits, i.e. improved
winter visibility, increased winter sunshine and absence of smog,
have been apparent to all.