View report page

117
Vibration.—An example of nuisances from this cause arose in
connection with factories in Well Street and Chatham Place, the
occupiers of the adjoining houses complaining of the vibration
caused by the machinery.
Generally, the system made it inevitable that in very many
instances the sanitary authority could enforce the requirements of
the Factory and Workshop Act and Regulations only after occupation,
which led to considerable difficulty and waste of time and
trouble in administration, and a large number of nuisances occurred
which were detrimental to health but could not be abated under
any powers then possessed by the sanitary authority. Apart from
these factors there was the possibility that the uncontrolled erection
of factories or workshops in back gardens and on waste plots might,
in itself, be detrimental to health by restricting light and air.
Fortunately, the London County Council (General Powers)
Act, 1937 and other Acts, gave the Council powers to deal with some
of these nuisances, and later the powers under the Defence Regulation
68 CA which prohibited, without the consent of the local
housing authority, the use for non-residential purposes of any
housing accommodation which had been used for residential purposes
since 31st December, 1938, combined with the zoning of areas for
residential or industrial purposes under the Town and Country
Planning Act, will prevent practices of this nature occurring in the
future.
The Shops Act, 1934, which came into operation on the
30th December, 1934, dealt with arrangements for the health and
comfort of shop workers and placed upon the Council responsibility
for ensuring that suitable ancl sufficient means of ventilating and
maintaining a reasonable temperature shall be provided in every
shop in which persons are employed about the business of the shop
and that suitable and sufficient sanitary conveniences are available
in every such shop not being a shop exempted by the Council from
this requirement of the Act. These provisions are re-enacted in the
Shops Act, 1950.
Until 1939 regular and systematic inspections were made of
all factories, shops, etc., in the borough, and necessary action
taken in respect of unsatisfactory premises, but with the outbreak
of war the more urgent demands upon the inspectors resulted in
less time than under normal conditions would be considered necessary
being given to this work, and it is only within the last few
years that anything like regular inspection has been possible.