[Report 1958] / Medical Officer of Health, Colchester Borough.

  • Colchester (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1958
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1958] / Medical Officer of Health, Colchester Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/32 (page 5)
    Ihe programme of replacement of steam locomotives by diesel locomotives, so that there is reason to hope that this particular occasional source of smoke will disappear spontaneously. Industrial smoke billowing from a factory chimney is the sort of auisance which rouses the anger of householders. What they are fipt to forget is that in most English towns the amount of smoke nroduced by domestic coal-fires is considerably greater than all the industrial smoke put together. If 15,000 houses in Colchester remitted their smoke through 150 chimneys instead of 15,000, I have uo doubt that the public would be demanding my head on a charger Decause 1 was not taking any steps against the offenders. Colchester Broduces its quota of smoke, but spreads it about and the winds, of :tourse, carry it into the open country between Colchester and jpswich, where it seems to cause active annoyance to no-one in warticular. It is true that the open fire, apart from being an English tradition, is a very pleasant thing to have in the house. I would not tor a moment criticise those who prefer it to central heating or Hosed stoves. I am, however, sure that the burning of soft coal in an open fireplace is an anti-social act which ought not to be per- mitted now that technical experiments are producing open fire-grates ivhich very successfully burn smokeless fuel. The time will pretty lertainly come when Colchester will become a smoke control area, ind when those who prefer open fires will be compelled to burn smokeless fuel. It might, therefore, be a very good move if steps were taken to see that all new houses built in the area had grates which were so designed that they could burn smokeless fuel if required. Colchester is famous for its gardens, and part of the business of maintaining a garden is the task of getting rid of garden rubbish. The Englishman stands by his inalienable right to have garden nonfires when it pleases him. The smoke from a garden bonfire can be every bit as unpleasant as the smoke from a power station or I cotton factory, and in its full concentration can be a considerable 'rritant to anyone who is a little “ chesty.” We do not receive many complaints of garden bonfire nuisance, but I am inclined to believe that this is because a large proportion of the population of Col- chester are gardeners and are uncomfortably conscious that they will oe doing next week what their neighbour has been doing today. Eerhaps they even rub their hands when their neighbour’s bonfire tmoke pours into their house and decide to accumulate bonfire material ready for the day when the wind is blowing in the opposite direction. It is true that the Health Department has power to deal with garden bonfires provided that they constitute a nuisance within the meaning of the relevant Acts of Parliament, but this is always difficult to prove. A Public Health Inspector may be called to a Cmoking garden bonfire but finds when he arrives that already the dmount of smoke which is being emitted is quite small. The problem is one which will be solved more by personal neighbourly Consideration for others than by prosecution, but if it became