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Refuse Collection. During 1950, deliveries of five new Dennis "Paxit"
refuse collection vehicles were made, together with another motor-vehicle
specially designed to serve narrow streets and back roads and these are now
all in service. The remaining "Paxit" vans were delivered during 1951. The
old and obsolete horse-drawn vans have now completely disappeared and the
"Pagefield" lorry with its containers, which has given such good service for
some 20 years has now become redundant. The collection remains a weekly
service. Salvage, also collected weekly apart from special requirements, has
been continued throughout the year and yields a profitable return to the ratepayers
as well as assisting in the production of goods for export and home.
The method of collecting pig-food for processing and sale to pig farmers
and breeders by means of lorries and communal bins in the streets has continued,
but has not been completely satisfactory as the contents often become
objectionable to residents and passers-by, particularly in the summer. This
method is now in course of being superseded by the provision of four electric
collecting vehicles and a system of supplying pails with covers, free of charge,
to all individual householders who are willing to co-operate; this system is now
operating in a substantial part of the Borough. These pails will be kept and
used by the householder at or near the kitchen or rear of the house and there is
evidence already that the average housewife much prefers this system to that
of the street bin.
Refuse Disposal. The experiments referred to in my last report have
been completed satisfactorily and have provided valuable information for the
proposed Charlton plant at Sunbury. The proposals for this plant have been
steadily advanced. A tender for the engineering plant involved has been
provisionally accepted and tenders for the remaining works, the buildings to
house this plant, have been received recently. If existing restrictions on building
and capital expenditure should permit of a commencement of actual construction
in 1952, the Corporation and the districts of Sunbury and Staines
may, in a period of a further two years or so, then be in possession of a really
modern and fully equipped works, capable of dealing with this pressing
problem.
The present situation is being met by retaining in part use the old
destructors at Teddington and Hampton and by an increased use of controlled
tipping on various low-lying sites. The Twickenham destructor has not been
in use.
WATER SUPPLY
I am indebted to Lt.-Col. E. F. W. Mackenzie, Director of Water Examination,
Metropolitan Water Board, for the following report:—
"The water supply to the Twickenham area is abstracted from the River
Thames at Laleham and Walton, purified in the storage reservoirs at Littleton
and Walton and at the filtration works at Hampton.
After filtration all the water receives a small dose of chlorine before it
leaves the works and adequate contact is provided to ensure complete action
of the chlorine before the water is pumped into supply. The contact tank first
came into operation at Hampton in July 1948, and the dose of chlorine required
to achieve satisfactory sterilisation is governed by the maintenance of a predetermined
residual of free chlorine after a prescribed period of contact. This
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