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32
HEATING APPLIANCES (FIREGUARDS) ACT, 1952
This Act prohibits the sale or letting of certain heating appliances
without effective fireguards. The Heating Appliances (Fireguards) Regulations,
1953 require fireguards to be fitted to gas fires, electric fires and oil
heaters sold or let after 30th September, 1954, and which are so designed that
they are suitable for use in residential premises and are of such a type that,
without a guard, there is a likelihood of injury by burning. The standards of
construction and fitting for guards, and the tests to be employed in ascertaining
whether guards comply with those standards, are set out in the Schedule to
the Regulations.
LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL (GENERAL POWERS) ACT, 1954
This Act, which received the Royal Assent on the 5th July, gives Borough
Councils new powers with regard to the provision of dustbins, and also provides
for the registration of persons carrying on the business of hairdresser or
barber, and their premises.
SECTION 11 (Power to sanitary authority to provide dustbins) empowers a Sanitary
Authority to provide, maintain, repair, cleanse, or renew such number of
dustbins in premises in their district as may be considered necessary. In
addition, the Sanitary Authority are empowered, if they think fit, to make an
annual charge in respect of each dustbin so provided, maintained, repaired,
cleansed or renewed by them.
SECTION 12 (Obligation to provide dustbins). If it appears to the Borough
Council that any house in their district is without a sufficient number of
dustbins of suitable material, size and construction, and in proper condition,
they may serve a notice on the owner of the house requiring him to provide such
number of suitable dustbins as may be specified in the notice. The provisions
of Section 286 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936 (relating to appeals
against the enforcement of certain notices) apply to any such notice. The
said Section 286 lays down certain grounds upon which an owner served with a
notice may appeal to a Court of Summary Jurisdiction, and the 1954 Act now
provides that the owner may also appeal on the ground that the house to which
the notice relates is occupied by some other person and that any obligation to
comply with the notice ought to fall upon the occupier of the house. An owner
is not entitled to rely on this ground of appeal unless the Court is satisfied
that a copy of his Notice of Appeal has been served by him on the occupier and
on the Borough Council, together with a written intimation that he proposes to
rely upon such ground of appeal. Upon receipt of such Notice of Appeal and
written intimation, the Borough Council must serve upon the occupier of the
house concerned a copy of the notice served by them upon the owner, accompanied
by a written notification defining the powers of the Court upon hearing an
appeal under Section 286 of the 1936 Act.
SECTION 18 (Hairdressers and Barbers) enacts that as from the appointed day no
person shall carry on the business of hairdresser or barber at any premises in
a Borough unless he and those premises are registered by the Borough Council.
The appointed day means in relation to any Borough such date as may be fixed by
the Council concerned. Powers of entry for the purpose of inspection may be
exercised by any person so authorised by the Borough Council in writing. A
Borough Council may make by-laws for the purpose of securing
(a) the cleanliness of premises registered and all the instruments,
towels, materials and equipment used therein; and
(b) the cleanliness of persons employed in such premises in regard to
both themselves and their clothing.
The person registered is required to keep displayed in the premises in respect of
which he is registered a copy of his certificate of registration and of any bylaws
made by the Borough Council, and penalties are provided for failure to do so.