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70
(1) Smoke other than-
(a) smoke emitted from a chimney of a private dwelling; or
(b) dark smoke emitted from a chimney of a building or from a chimney
serving the furnace of a boiler or industrial plant attached to
a building or for the time being fixed to or installed on any land,
shall, if it is a nuisance to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, be deemed
for the purposes of section two hundred and eighty-two of, and the Fifth
Schedule to, the Public Health (London) Act, 1936, to be a nuisance which may
be dealt with summarily under the Act.
The maximum penalty for failing to comply with an abatement or prohibition
Order is a daily fine of £5.
The section also provides that if the local authority are satisfied that
such a nuisance has occurred and, although it has ceased, is likely to recur,
they may, without serving a nuisance notice, cause a complaint to be made to
a Justice of the Peace, and the Magistrates' Court shall have the power on that
complaint to make an Order prohibiting a recurrence of the nuisance.
A total of 62 nuisances were discovered and written notification of the
offence was sent to the occupiers of 16 of the premises concerned, followed in
four instances by the service of formal notices. In no case was it necessary
to institute legal proceedings.
SECTION 25 (Powers of local authorities as to research and. publicity). Under
the provisions of this section the Council purchased from the Ministry of
Housing and Local Government a prefabricated bungalow situate in Florfield
Road at rear of Town Hall which had reached the end of its useful life as a
dwelling: the land on which it stood, owned by the Council and formerly under
the control of the Housing and Town Planning Committee, was, with the Minister' s
approval, appropriated from housing purposes to office purposes. The bungalow
was equipped as a clean Air Centre and, in addition to providing a permanent
exhibition and information centre, also provides office accommodation for
some of the staff of the Clean Air Section of the Department. The opening
ceremony was held on Saturday 7th March, 1959, since when the Centre has
remained open daily to members of the public. During the year some 2,700
people visited the Centre to obtain advice on such matters as the choice and
installation of approved appliances, the use and availability of smokeless fuels,
the procedure to be adopted when applying for grant aid, and other enquiries
directly connected with the establishment of smoke control areas. I am
indebted to Mr. J, E, Watson, a member of the public health inspection staff
for the photograph on page 76 which shows a section of one of the two rooms
used for the purpose of the exhibition.
As part of the general publicity campaign in support of the Council's
clean air programme some nine lectures and film shows were given and details of
these are set out in the part of the report dealing with Health Education.
The National Society for Clean Air. The Council renewed its annual
subscription of twenty guineas to this Society.
The London and Home Counties Clean Air Advisory Council, The Council
renewed its annual subscription of two guineas to this body The Chairman
and Vice-chairman of the Public Health Committee together with the Medical
Officer of Health represented the Borough Council on each of these two
bodies
Specific publicity within smoke control areas is undertaken as follows:-
After the making of a pilot survey, report to the Public Health Committee
and Council, and receipt of the Minister's provisional clearance, the
undermentioned communications are sent:-