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Drainage and Sewerage.
The embargo placed by the various Ministries against the execution of
any major improvements to sewers has, for another year, prevented the carry
ing out of the much.needed improvements in the East and Central Twickenham
areas. Surcharging of both soil and surface water systems is, therefore, likely
to recur under unfavourable conditions at any time. Ordinary repairs of a
routine nature, flushing, and the necessary regular inspections have again
comprised the only work possible under these circumstances.
Towards the end of the year the Kingston Corporation were allowed,
under arrangements made with the Middlesex County Council, to lay a sewer
pumping main across the River at Hampton and along the Lower Teddington
Road, to discharge the whole of their sewage into the County Council's Mogden
sewer near the Teddington Destructor site. This was rendered necessary by
the erection of the new electricity generating station on the site of the Kingston
Sewage Works. This pumping main delivers approximately an average extra
daily flow of some three million gallons of sewage through the Mogden sewer
running through Twickenham, and will operate until the suggested new joint
sewage disposal scheme for Kingston, Surbiton, Maiden, and probably Epsom,
becomes an accomplished fact. Special measures have been necessary to avoid
smell along the route of this main.
Public Cleansing.
(a) Streets. It has been possible to maintain the improved standard
of scavenging during the past year, although this standard has not yet reached
that of the pre.war years.
(b) Refuse Collection and Salvage. A tender has been accepted for
eight new modern refuse collection vehicles, and its acceptance has been
approved by the Ministry of Health, after considerable investigation and comparative
tests with other types of vehicles. Seven of the new petrol.driven
lorries, all with aluminium bodies and a refuse compression device, known
as the "PAXIT" vehicle and manufactured by Dennis Bros., of Guildford,
will be, it is hoped, in service by the middle of 1949, and four further lorries
of the same type within an additional year. The twelfth vehicle is specially
constructed to collect from back and narrow streets. The Committee, in
their choice of vehicle, have been influenced by the progress made on the
scheme for the new destructor and salvage plant proposed at Sunbury, referred
to below. The weekly collection of refuse has continued, but it cannot be
contended that the present system of collection by skips in the immediate
vicinity of kitchens and larders is in accord with modern ideas of hygiene,
or consistent with the standing and prestige of a progressive borough.
The weekly collection of salvage has also been maintained, with generally
satisfactory results.
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