View report page

37
THE LITTER ACT 1958
This new piece of legislation is to provide not only
an amenity by keeping the country litter-free and tidy, but
also to afford a reduction in the high cost of refuse collecttion
and road sweeping.
It enables any person, not merely the local authority,
to institute proceedings against persons depositing litter in
any street, road or other place to which the public have
access.
I have not yet heard of a private individual taking
proceedings for an offence though the Council have successfully
summoned offenders against the Statute.
It would seem that the best means of securing the
object of the Act is to take legal proceedings for breachesa
step not generally acceptable, but efficacious when the
public refuse to accept their responsibilities. The purpose
of the Public Health Inspectors will be to educate if possible,
and recommend prosecutions on non-acceptance of this
proposal.
PUBLIC HEALTH INSPECTORS (DUTIES)
The modern conception of the work of these officers
is markedly different from that in the nineteenth century.
He is not now a strict sanitarian dealing only with the "filth
nuisances" which produced the primary public health statutes;
he is a person who executes legislation under the direction
of the local authority, to secure normal comfort in the environment
of the public. The task is now rather more protective
than preventive.
For some years there has been a shortage of qualified
inspectors with the result that there has been an infiltration
of partially trained personnel into the service.
Happily this trend is disappearing, due no doubt to the
splendid response by local authorities to the Government's
studentship campaign. It has also been noted with some concern
that there is a grave shortage of policemen to afford
proper public protection against crime. Some mitigation of
this defect might be secured if these officers were to be
relieved of such local government administration functions
relating to-