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years of the programme. Nevetheless, estimated costs
in connection with every smoke control order made
have not been exceeded.
Public interest in smoke from garden bonfires is
unabated and a great deal of time is spent by public
health inspectors in investigating complaints and in
educating keen gardeners into disposing of their
prunings without contravening Section 16 of the Clean
Air Act 1956.
During the last few years there has been a steady
improvement in industrial smoke emission and
generally an emission of excessive smoke occasionally
occurring is found to be due to a mechanical breakdown
or maladjustment and is quickly rectified. No
proceedings under section 1 of the Act were taken
during the year, but informal negotiation aimed at
the prevention of smoke nuisance or the solving of a
small number of difficult cases is a daily feature of
the department's work.
The association of section 10 of the Act with
building byelaw procedures produces difficulties, and
it is hoped that discussions in progress will in due
course result in a closer relation between the law
relating to the height of chimneys and the installations
they serve or will serve.
Moveable dwellings—There are six sites in the
borough which have been occupied for many years
by travelling showmen and therefore exempt from
licensing requirements. The sites are well conducted
and have given no cause for concern during the year.
Two other sites for the accommodation of single
caravans are licensed under the Caravan Sites and
Control of Development Act 1960.
On the western outskirts of the borough, occupation
of roadside verges and unfenced lands by vagrant
types of van dwellers has become more prevalent, and
the conditions they create and leave behind them are
a serious problem. The generally offensive conduct of
these people renders them unsuitable for sites provided
anywhere near built up areas, and there is no land
available in the borough which is considered to be
sufficiently remote from dwellings or other buildings
to be suitable as a site for them. The surreptitious
depositing of refuse and litter, and of scrap material
which is an eyesore but not necessarily always a
nuisance or injurious to health, can seldom be dealt
with effectively in the absence of proof of the identity
of the depositors.
Vigorous application of all the powers available to
the council, including forcible removal as trespassers
of van dwellers on land owned by the council,
fencing or trenching of the margins of such lands
wherever practicable and pressure upon the owners
of privately owned land to adopt similar measures,
serves only to afford temporary relief to some
residents while transferring the nuisance to another
area. Fines resulting from prosecution of individual
van dwellers are cheerfully paid and appear to have no
deterrent effect, however often they are imposed,
The problem is by no means peculiar to the London
Borough of Hounslow, and it may be that a solution
will only be found by the introduction of national
legislation designed specifically to deal with this type
of person, capable of immediate enforcement without
the time-consuming process of authorisation by local
authorities or their committees.
Seven hundred and eighty-one inspections were
made during the year in order to secure the removal
of unauthorised caravans and the abatement of
nuisances associated with them.
Common lodging houses—There is no common
lodging house in the borough.
Canal boats—A reduction in the number of canal
boats used for human habitation found on the part
of the Grand Union Canal running through the
borough consequent upon the closure of a servicing
depot, is reflected in a smaller number of inspections
made, but routine inspections of boats in transit are
regularly carried out.
Factories—Section 153 (1) of the Factories Act 1961
requires the medical officer of health to include in
his annual report prescribed particulars of matters
under Parts I and VIII of the Act which are
administered by the local authority. A summary of
the work done is given in Table 27. Standards are
generally satisfactory and a relatively small number
of contraventions of the Act and relevant regulations
have been successfully dealt with without the necessity
for legal proceedings. The total number of outworkers'
premises within the borough is 78.1,176
inspections were made of factories, and 83 of outworkers'
premises, together with 36 inspections
under the Agriculture (Safety Health and Welfare
Provisions) Act 1956.
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