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59
Contraventions of Smoke Control Orders• Authority to institute legal
proceedings was given in respect of two contraventions of the Hackney No. 2
Smoke Control Order, 1959. In one case the summons was issued against a
Pencil Manufacturer burning wood waste on a boiler designed to burn coal, and
the Magistrates adjourned the hearing following evidence that the boiler plant
had been successfully modified to burn wood waste. As a result of the modifications
carried out, the summons was withdrawn, and on the 25th October the
Council agreed to the making of the following Variation Order exempting from
the provisions of the No. 2 Order furnaces specially designed or adapted for
the combustion of wood waste materials:-
HACKNESf No. 2 (CENTRAL) SMOKE CONTROL ORDER, 19 59 - VARIATION ORDER No. 1.
In pursuance of action 11(5), the Council, in October, 1961, made an Order
varying the Hackney No. 2 (Central) Smoke Control Order, 1959, so as to exempt
from the provisions of thai Order furnaces specially designed or adapted for
combustion of wood waste material. (This Variation Order was confirmed by the
Minister on the 23rd February, 1962, and comes into operation on the 1st
September, 1962).
The second case was against a householder persistently burning bituminous
coal and causing smoke emission, but it was not possible to serve the summons
as the defendant had left the premises.
The following three Circulars relating to Smoke Control Areas were issued by
the Ministry of Housing and Local Government:-
Circular No. 1/61
CLEAN AIR ACT, 1956
Notification of Provisional Plans for Establishing
Smoke Control Areas
1. I am directed by the Minister of Housing and Local
Government to say that he has had under review the administrative
procedure for establishing smoke control areas as set out in Part III
of the Memorandum on Smoke Control Areas issued with the Department' s
Circular No. 64/56.
2. Local authorities who had decided in principle to declare a
smoke control area were asked in paragraph 42 of the Memorandum to
notify the Minister, so that he could give a warning if in his view
proposals should for any reason be modified or postponed and thus
save local authorities from undertaking unnecessary or premature
detailed surveys.
3. Considerable experience has now been gained of the operation
of the provisions of the Clean Air Act relating to smoke control
areas, which were' a new departure when the Memorandum was issued.
Consequently the Minister does not consider that there is any longer
a general need for proposals to be referred to him before smoke
control orders are formally submitted for his approval.
4. In future therefore local authorities in the black areas,
and local authorities outside the black areas who have already made
one or more smoke control orders, will not be required to notify the
Minister in accordance with paragraph 42 of the Memorandum of their
intentions to make orders. They can assume that he does not wish to
comment on any proposals at present before him under that paragraph.
Although these authorities will no longer be required to notify the
Minister it will of course remain open to them to consult the
Department informally if they so desire.