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The Council has appointed the Chairman of the Health Committee
and the Senior Public Health Inspector as their representatives on the
Standing Conference convened by the Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research and comprising all the co-operating bodies involved
in the investigation of atmospheric pollution. This Conference met
twice during the year.
The Council continued to give consideration to a Clean Air Programme,
and during 1959 a scheme was approved to enable the making
of Smoke Control Orders covering the whole of the Borough during the
next twenty years. The scheme provides for the division of the Borough
into fifteen Areas, the first four of which would be dealt with within the
first five years. It was hoped that by obtaining additional staff the preliminary
work on the first Smoke Control Area would be put in hand
on January the 1st, 1960, but up to the time of writing this has not been
possible.
SHOPS ACT 1950.
The total number of Shops Act inspections during 1959 was 91.
Sanitary accommodation and heating and ventilation of shops has been
kept under observation, and any necessary action has been taken in
respect of general closing hours, half-day closing and Sunday Trading.
DISEASES OF ANIMALS ACTS.
No outbreaks of disease occurred within the Borough during 1959.
Copies of Orders made by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Food in respect of outbreaks of foot and mouth disease, anthrax and
fowl pest were received.
In November a consignment of horse flesh, which was suspected of
having been in contact with an outbreak of anthrax in Scotland, was
delivered to a shop in Wimbledon. Precautions were taken to keep the
consignment of meat under control, and eventually the meat was
destroyed under the supervision of the Senior Public Health Inspector,
upon the instructions of the Ministry. The shop premises, including the
refrigerator and all the equipment liable to contamination, were cleansed
and disinfected.
Four visits were made during the year to a piggery which is
licensed by the Council under the Diseases of Animals (Waste Foods)
Order 1957 for the boiling of foodstuffs for the feeding of animals. One
other licence was surrendered during the year following the closing down
of the premises.
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