[Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Epsom & Ewell Borough.

  • Epsom and Ewell (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Epsom & Ewell Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    52/74 (page 48)
    TABLE E PROSECUTIONS Section of Act or Title o f Regulation or Order No. of persons or companies prosecuted No. of informations laid No. of informations leading to a conviction 4 (1) 1 1 6 (4) 1 1 1 1 7 f 1 ( 1 1 9 (2) ! f 3 3 10 (2) 1 1 The first impetus of this new Act which requires registration of Offices and Shops has now spent itself. New registrations numbered only 63 out of a total of 665 representing those premises where new businesses have been established or changes made during the year. The routine in- spections of offices and shops now forms a part of the normal duties of the public health inspectors and, in that respect, 739 inspections were made for all purposes. Fourteen accidents were reported during the year. Each was investigated and a quarterly return thereon is submitted to the Ministry. There has been a good and uniform acceptance by those concerned as to the necessity of the requirements of the Act and as shown above only one prosecution was taken during the year. This concerned a ladies’ hairdressers where the proprietor was fined £70 with 5 guineas costs in respect of seven offences. CLEAN AIR ACT 1956 Complaints Twenty-seven complaints were received during the year in connection with smoke nuisances. These were dealt with informally. Measurement of Air Pollution Following the decision of the Council to join the National Scheme organised by the Depart- ment of Scientific and Industrial Research, Warren Spring Laboratory, for the measurement of air pollution, the first Station was put into operation in the Science Laboratory of Stoneleigh Secondary School, Vale Road, Ewell, on the 25th June, 1963. The Station is known as Ewell No. 1. A second Station, Epsom No. 1, came into service on the 27th October, 1964, and has been estab- lished in the Public Health Department, at the Town Hall, Epsom. There are few industrial chimneys in this Borough and it is fair to say that most of the smoke now recorded comes from the chimneys of private houses. In my Annual Report for 1965, I indicated that the information now available from the two local Recording Stations supported the view that smoke and sulphur dioxide were steadily decreas- ing and this trend has been maintained during this year as seen in the tables accompanying this report. The Ministry of Housing and Local Government wrote to all local authorities in January 1966, urging those Authorities in “black areas”, who so far have done nothing, or very little, to promote clean air by the making of Smoke Control Areas, to review their policies to this end. The position in the Borough is that the Council have, during the past 5-6 years adopted a policy of publicity designed to encourage householders to burn smokeless fuels and they have never accepted that any part of the district should be classified as a “black area”. The Council informed the Ministry of their views and subsequently were invited to submit a memorandum setting out the reasons with statistical and other information which this Authority consider relevant to the claim that the Borough should not be classified as a “black area” The statistical information contained in the memorandum, besides being based on the measure- ments of air pollution, gave information of a survey undertaken in 1961 of 500 houses, being a sample of premises from each Ward. In order that an up-to-date assessment could be made of the present position, a further survey was undertaken in November of this year, but this time was confined to the three Northern Wards of the Borough. This area being adjacent to Greater