[Report 1971] / Medical Officer of Health, Lancashire County Council.

  • Lancashire (England). County Council.
Date:
1971
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1971] / Medical Officer of Health, Lancashire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    118/196 (page 114)
    Prevention of Atmospheric Pollution.—Clean Air Acts, 1956 and 1968.—In 1971, 43 orders for the making of smoke control areas were submitted to the Department of the Environment by authorities within the Administrative County involving 38,600 properties. Orders receiving confirma¬ tion numbered 31, covering 26,600 properties. In circular 63/70 local authorities were informed that the Minister had been advised that supplies of solid smokeless fuel might be short in some parts of the country during the winter of 1970/71 and that accordingly he was willing on request by local authorities either to suspend orders already in force or to postpone the operative dates of orders recently confirmed but not yet brought into operation. Of the 350 orders in force at the end of the year involving 278,800 properties, 49 covering 47,000 properties had been suspended and a further seven orders covering 6,990 properties had their operative dates postponed. Progress achieved in the elimination and prevention of atmospheric pollution is kept under review by a Clean Air Council, appointed under the Act by the Minister, and the National Clean Air Society, of which the County Council and some of the County district councils are members, is also active in this matter. At regional and local levels various voluntary associations of local authorities, such as the Manchester and District Regional Clean Air Council and the South East Lancashire and North Cheshire Consultative Committee on Atmospheric Pollution, have been established as advisory and technical bodies for the purpose of improving the control of and reducing atmospheric pollution in the areas represented. Co-operation between industrial managements and public health officials in the individual and practical problems involved in the elimination of black smoke continued to be very good. Movable Dwellings and Camping Sites.—By section 269 of the Public Health Act, 1936, local authorities are empowered to grant licences authorising persons to allow land occupied by them within the district to be used as sites for movable dwellings, and licences authorising persons to erect and station, or use, such dwellings within the district. Local authorities may attach to any such licence such conditions as they think fit with regard to water supply, sanitary arrangements, free space, etc. A movable dwelling is described in this section of the Act as including any tent, van, shed or other conveyance, whether on wheels or not, and any shed or similar structure which is used either regularly, or at certain seasons only, or intermittently for human habitation, but does not include a structure to which the building byelaws of the local authority apply. The number of sites in the Administrative County area used for camping purposes during 1971 was 356, according to the reports of local medical officers of health. Licences issued by the local authorities under section 269 of the Act of 1936 numbered 29 in respect of sites and 326 in respect of individual movable dwellings. As from the 19th August, 1960, more effective powers for controlling caravan sites were conferred on local authorities by the operation of the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act, 1960. As well as strengthening the powers of planning authorities it introduced a new licensing system to be administered within the Administrative County area by County district councils. The purpose of the Act is to secure that all caravan sites, whether residential or holiday sites, are properly equipped and run; that sites are not allowed in the wrong places but are allowed in acceptable places, and that planning permission is not withheld on principle but only where there is some definite planning objection; that permission is given on a long term or permanent basis unless there is some definite reason against this; and that where sites have to be run down or numbers have to be reduced this is done with due regard to avoidance of hardship. At the end of the year the total number of site licences in operation under this Act was 564 involving 16,149 caravans. There were reported to be 1,971 caravans used for permanent occupation. The adoption of the Model Standards issued by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in con¬ junction with the Act was reported from 31 County districts in respect of permanent residential caravan sites and from 22 in respect of holiday caravan sites. Swimming Baths and Pools.—In 40 of the County districts there are public swimming baths and in 27 districts there are school swimming baths. Privately owned swimming baths or pools used by the public, or specific groups thereof, exist in 10 districts. In nearly all instances filtration and chlorination plants are installed and the frequency of water change generally varies between three and six hours. During the year 1,468 samples of the water were submitted to bacteriological examination and 113 to chemical analysis. One hundred and fifty-four of the former and two of the latter were found to be unsatisfactory. Disinfestation.—The number of dwellings reported by the local medical officers of health to have been disinfested during 1971 was 5,338 of which 2,156 were council owned dwellings. Almost the whole of this work is undertaken by the local authority staffs but contractors are employed by some authorities, particularly in cases of heavy infestation where hydrogen cyanide gas is required to be used in the van during removal of furniture, bedding etc., to fresh premises. Prevention of Damage by Pests Act, 1949.—Under this Act powers relating to the control of rats and mice were vested in the local sanitary authorities upon whom rests the obligation of ensuring freedom from rats and mice in their areas. The Act lays down the duty of occupiers of land to give written notice of rodent infestation to the appropriate authority and the powers given to local authori¬ ties enable them, inter alia, to serve formal notice on owners and occupiers requiring any necessary work of rodent destruction, including structural work, to be carried out; to carry out such work in default of the owner or occupier and recover therefrom any expenses reasonably incurred; and to require information as to the interests in land. Certain powers of entry for authorised persons are also laid down.