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64
USE OF STICKS AND PAPER IN SMOKE CONTROL AREAS
The following is an extract from Circular No. 28/60 which was issued by
the Ministry of Housing and Local Government on the 7th July, 1960:-
"CLEAN AIR ACT, 19 56
1. Use of Sticks and Paper in Smoke Control Areas
1. I am directed by the Minister of Housing and Local Government to say that
he has had a number of enquiries about the use of sticks and paper for lighting
fires in smoke control areas. He thinks that local authorities who are
engaged in establishing smoke control areas may find it useful to have some
guidance on this question.
2. There is little doubt that coke can be ignited by gas, and that gas provides
the most convenient smokeless method of lighting other smokeless solid fuels
Nothing in this circular therefore is intended to discourage the use of gas for
fire lighting in smoke control areas.
3. There will however be houses which have no town gas and cannot be supplied
with it at a reasonable cost Some people, too, may object to having gas
in their houses at all, and in the Minister's view it would be unreasonable
to insist that they should.
4. It is probable that, in time, other means of lighting fires smokelessly
will come into general use. There are already on the market devices which
make use of bottled gas But for the foreseeable future it is likely that
sticks and paper will be commonly used for lighting fires where there is no
supply of town gas In the Minister's view the small amount of smoke caused
in this way must be accepted in the general interest of making progress with
the creation of smoke control areas.
5. The Minister thinks that legal cover for the use of sticks and paper
for lighting fires can best be given by the use in smoke control orders of
the power of exemption in section 11(3) of the Clean Air Act, 1956. Local
authorities could give an exemption in general terms extending to fireplaces
in any building or separately occupied parts of a building which is not
supplied with town gas; or, alternatively, they could give a specific
exemption to named individual premises. Either type of exemption should be
subject to a condition, to secure that it would have effect only where
authorised fuels or kindling sticks and paper were being used.
6. The Minister therefore asks local authorities, in preparing smoke control
orders for any area where it is apparent that some buildings or separately
occupied parts of buildings will remain without a gas supply, to include
provision for exempting them. The following models would, he thinks be
suitable for general use:-
GENERAL EXEMPTION:
Class of fireplace to be exempted: Fireplaces in buildings or parts of buildings
separately occupied, without gas supply.
Conditions: Only authorised fuels, as declared by
tions under the Clean Air Act, 1956 and
kindling sticks and paper shall be used in
the fireplace.
INDIVIDUAL EXEMPTIONS:
Fireplaces to be exempted: Fireplaces in the following Buildings:-
.............................................................................
(shown coloured on plan )
Only authorised fuels, as declared by regulations
under the Clean Air Act, 1956 and
kindling sticks and paper shall be used in
the fireplaces.