Chairman's Address

THE CHAIRMAN

Mr G.S . Bai l ey joined the Portsmouth Testing Department in 1931 and qualified as an Ins pector of Weights and Measures in 1935 and as an Ins pector of Gas Meters in 1936, gaining, during the s ame period a National Certificate in Mechanica l Engineering . In 1936 he was appointed as an Inspector at Poole , followed by a similar appointment at Luton in 1938 . On Local Government Re- organisation Mr Bailey was appointed County Cons umer Protection Office r for Bedfords hire . He served as chairman of t he South East Midland Branch of the Institute of Tradi ng Standards Administrat i on in 1969 . My first contact with Petroleum legislation and it's enforcement was in 1931 when I joined the Portsmouth Testing Department. Until 1938 I was actively engaged with the enforcement of Pe-troleum legislation with particular emphasis on installations from small one tank installations to bulk storage installations designed for the rapid discharge of sea-going tanker s .

Then, as now, though today we have the Health and Safety Executive, enforcement lay squarely on the shoulders of the Local Authorities thrvugh their Petroleum Officers by whatever name they were called. Guidance from the Home Office - yes, but Central Government Departments never interpret their own legislation. That is a matter for the courts.

As I look back, I realise there has been but little change. True we have liaison Officers appointed by the Heal th and Safety Executive and maybe in the years to come they will be more effective than they seem today .

Then, as now, there has always been good liaison between the Officers of both Central and Local Authorities but this does not make up for the lack of positive, unequivocal legiSlation which would enable us to sustain a uniform standard of enforcement throughout the country . The form of the legislation needS to be carefully considered and I would suggest an enabling Act, similar in for m to t he Fair Trading Act. An Act whi ch would enable the appropriate minister to r eact almost instantly to changing conditions by Regulation or Statutory Instrument and not by t he more cumbersome pr ocedure of a new Act. I am concious that re-organisation str uck the association a grevi OUs blow but f ortunately it was not mor tal . There ar e i ndications that the association has picked itself up , dusted its elf down and is noW poised f or a revi val . I trust t his i s so and that the association will again go f rom s trength t o str ength bu t th i s wi l l depend on our own effor t . I therefore commend the association to each and everyone of you and urge yOU al l t o do whatever you can to ens ure that it is s oon the force it once was .