[Report 1926] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City.

  • Leeds City Council
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1926] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    58/192 (page 54)
    coke does not keep alight except when there is a considerable body of fuel. Models of this new grate can be seen at the showrooms of the Gas Department. I am pleased to report that during the year the Corporation completed the building of 8 houses in which gas or electricity was the only form of heating. There are still 40 more to be built to complete the scheme. It is too early yet to pass an opinion on this new type of house but I hope the experiment will be successful. During the year three summonses were issued against one firm for breaches of the law in respect of smoke emission. On each occasion the defendants pleaded poverty owing to bad trade and the Magistrate dismissed the summons. When the new Act comes into force in July, 1927, manufacturers may expect a tightening up of the administration. The West Riding of Yorkshire Regional Smoke Abatement Committee continued to meet during the year, and a summary of the report is given hereunder :— The Executive Committee have held eight meetings during the year and the average attendance per meeting has been eleven. Ihe Committee lost by the death of Councillor H. L. Cribb, of Guiselej/, in December, a highly respected and much valued member. Councillor Cribb was a regular attender at the meetings and took a keen interest in all the Committee’s deliberations. The subjects discussed by the Committee during the year have included the circulation of the Final Report of the Conference, instruction to engineers and stokers, boiler firing tests, and the drafting of Bye-laws under the new Smoke Abatement Act. The Final Report approved by the Conference in June, 1926, was circulated to all the constituent authorities with a special request that it might be formally adopted by their respective Councils. The response, generally speaking, has been fairly good, though the number adopting the report in its entirety fell considerably short of the Committee’s expectations. Out of the total number of authorities represented at the Conference, 47 have adopted the report in its entirety, 4 in part, 21 have not adopted it, whilst from 29 no information has been received. The subject which absorbed most of the Committee’s time during the year was the question of the provision of suitable instruction in fuel economy and boiler-house management for engineers and stokers through¬ out the area. The decision arrived at was to ask the Education Committees of the most important centres of population in the area to institute courses of instruction which would be available not only to men in their own but also to those working in adjoining areas. This suggestion was well received and resulted in nine authorities, namely, Leeds, Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Wakefield, Keighley, Morley,