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41
This very noticeable increase in the price of premium smokeless fuels
is of very great concern to me as it is undoubtedly exerting an influence on
the operation of the Smote Control Orders and adding to the difficulty of
maintaining complete enforcement.
Fuel Delivery in the Borough
Resulting from the rebuilding of Shoreditch two thirds of its population
are now living in Council flats and have severely limited storage space
for solid smokeless fuel. The borough has a high proportion of elderly people
and generally speaking solid fuel is ordered in small quantities no more than
1 cwt. or 2 cwts. at a time because of the limited storage facilities. The
larger merchants do not handle much business in the Borough as these circumstances
tend to make business uneconomical.
An adequate service to all is difficult to maintain and there are
complaints of delivery men refusing to hump fuel above the first floor of
blocks of flats even when sufficient supplies are available. The Public
Health Department became aware of these difficulties and recommended the
Council to consider establishing a policy of siting automatic vending machines
on convenient sites to enable occupiers, (particularly those living in upper
flats) to obtain small quantities of solid fuel at reasonable prices.
Our experience has been that prepacked fuel sold from retail shops in
small quantities ha.s been available but usually at a prohibitive cost.
The Council made a recommendation to the Metropolitan Boroughs Standing
Joint Committee to the effect that unless distributors fulfilled their
obligations of maintaining satisfactory delivery of solid fuel, local authorities
should be empowered to undertake this function.
Atmospheric Pollution from heavy vehicles.
The very useful work carried out in previous years of writing to
owners of vehicles which emit an undue amount of smoke has I regret to say,
been cut to a trickle this year. Unfortunately this is being brought about by
the financial provisions of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing)
(Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 1962 which has increased the search fee from
l/-d to 5/-d. Surely Councils endeavouring to reduce the level of pollution
caused by vehicles passing through their area should not be required to pay
such fees.