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arising from these visits. A number of locations exist in the Borough where people can take and
deposit any type of refuse. It is regrettable that while many people are urging that central and local
government increase their efforts to provide a better environment, some people still find it necessary
to burn garden refuse.
DUST AND GRIT
It was not necessary to serve any formal request to measure the emissions of dust and grit from
a plant in the Borough. 19 complaints of nuisance from dust were investigated, no legal action was
recommended against any of the persons causing the complaint.
INDUSTRIAL AND OTHER ODOURS
There were 214 inspections in connection with fumes from industrial boilers and processes and
700 inspections in connection with offensive odours from other sources compared with 245 and 892
respectively in 1971. The perchloroethylene emissions from twelve coin operated dry cleaning establishments
were checked and found to be satisfactory. In addition the plant at 8 dry cleaning premises
where the equipment is operated by the staff was also checked and at one of these the emission
was considered to be excessive and the equipment was renewed.
The emission of obnoxious fumes from a newly established factory engaged in anodising was
found to be unsatisfactory and created a nuisance. This process is under the control of the alkali
inspectorate and modifications to the plant fume scrubbing tower have been carried out.
Extensive modifications were again carried out to the fume extraction system at a factory in
Harefield handling pitch fibre pipes. This again is a process under the control of the alkali inspectorate
and while there has been considerable improvement over the past years it is still not possible to say
that this problem is satisfactorily solved.
Unfortunately there have been a number of fires in refuse tips where tipping is no longer taking
place. These caused nuisance to the local residents both from smoke and smell. It is virtually impossible
to extinguish a fire which has a good hold on the material in the tip other than by isolating the
section which is on fire from the rest of the tip before attempting to put out the fire. This is a costly
operation and, whenever the interior of a refuse tip which is not completely inert is opened up, there
is always a danger of further fires.
WATER
SWIMMING POOLS

Many of the pools are unheated and during the past year, due to the poor summer weather, these
received very little use. One local authority school was out of use during the whole season whilst a
cover was erected by its parent teacher association and another developed faults which prevented its
use. Regular tests are carried out on pool waters to ensure the efficiency of the water purification
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