[Report 1959] / Medical Officer of Health, Slough Borough.

  • Slough (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1959
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1959] / Medical Officer of Health, Slough Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    coal the installation must be properly attended but it is somewhat easier to control from a clean air angle. Section 10 of the Clean Air Act. gives Local Authorities power to control the height of industrial chimneys in so far as they can reject plans submitted in accordance with Building Byelaws, unless they are satisfied that the height of a chimney as shown on the plan will be sufficient to prevent the emission of smoke grit gases etc.. which are prejudicial to health or a nuisance. In this connection the Department has a close liaison with the Borough Engineer’s Chief Building Inspector, and this additional power was put to good use during the year. Prior Approval Under the Council’s Scheme of ’Prior Approval’’ in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of the Clean Air Act, 1956 fourteen applications were received in respect of fuel consuming plant within the Borough. '’Approval was given in thirteen cases. One application was refused since the Council were not entirely satisfied that the plant, as proposed, was capable of smokeless operation. Since 1954 when the Council’s Scheme of Prior Approval of Industrial Furnaces was introduced by the Slough Corporation Act, 1949, some twenty-eight cases had been dealt with up to the end of 1959. Domestic There is every good reason for emphasizing the case against domestic smoke. It is becoming generally recognised that smoke from the raw coal fire is the most harmful and dangerous constituent of air pollution from which this country suffers. The whole of the Clean Air Act. 1950 which is the first really effective Statute for dealing with the scourge of Air Pollution is now in operation. Probably its greatest virtue is that for the first time ever local authorities can now control domestic smoke, which is responsible for more than half of our pollution. This is not always readily appreciated but a study of the following three main reasons for it shows how true this statement is firstly that no domestic firegrate can burn bituminous, coal efficiently enough to prevent the emission of smoke, secondly a domestic chimney discharges its waste products at a comparatively low level, and thirdly there are literally millions of such chimneys. No local authority can therefore claim that they have no problem on the grounds that their area is partly a wholly residential and/or non industria].