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6
materials which are not of the type ordinarily removed in the domestic
refuse bin and which being deposited lead to accumulations in different
parts of the district. The other was the agreement arrived at with the
Thames Conservators under which it will be possible to arrange for the
flow of the River Pinn to be unobstructed and so reduce the number of
complaints, particularly in spells of dry weather.
The Council's Slum Clearance Programme has made disappointingly
slow progress. Although it is years since the Northolt Road Area was represented
and even three years since the Ministry enquiry, none of these
houses has been dealt with. The Slum Clearance Programme hinges on
the availability of new houses in which to decant those living in the properties
on this site and representations about the remaining houses included
in the Council's Slum Clearance Programme have had to be held-up
except for some of the more especially urgent cases. In the meantime
though the owners and particularly the owner-occupiers of a number of
houses included in the original programme have decided to carry out a
substantial volume of work to some of the houses which results in their
being removed, at least for some time, from the list for demolition.
The Council during the year decided to widen the range of interests
of the sub-committee set-up in the first instance to deal with the Clean
Food Campaign, feeling that what was learned about the approach to the
public in regard to clean food could usefully be applied to the Clean Air
Campaign and to such matters as accidents in the home. The new subcommittee
then became the Health Advisory Council. The development
of the arrangements for general health education in this district came
about largely because for some years one of the Public Health Inspectors
devoted virtually the whole of his time to it. Unfortunately, during the
year, he resigned and it is becoming apparent that it is going to prove
difficult to find someone to fill his place.
Progress was made in the initial stages of delineating an area which
was to become the first Smoke Control Area in this district. This area
was chosen not because it was one about which information could easily
be obtained and so enable a Smoke Control Area to be declared with the
minimum of difficulties; on the contrary, it is representative of the residential
part of the district and was selected as being the area from which
progress to other parts could easily be made. Collecting the information
of this relatively small area entails an enormous amount of work which
has to be undertaken by Mr. King and the Public Health Inspectors
without causing too much disruption to their ordinary labours. Many
householders do not realise the importance of the domestic chimney
in polluting the atmosphere. Over one million tons of smoke are emitted
each year from domestic fires, compared with figures of half a million
tons from industry and 100,000 tons from the railways. On the other
hand, the domestic chimney contributes only 100,000 out of the tota
of 900,000 tons of grit and dust emitted. Of the sulphur dioxide gas
which is given off when any solid fuels or fuel oils are burned, the domestic
fires contribute about one out of the 5½ million tons. It is incongruous
at a time when the Government urges progress in the establishmen