POINTS FROM FOUR OUTSTANDING PAPERS PRESENTED AT THIS WEEK'S CONFERENCE OF THE INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC CLEANSING, AT BLACKPOOL
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Efficient. Costing for Efficient Operation DETAILED reference was made, in a paper read by Mr. H. C, Lighten, M.R.San.I., A.M.Inst.T., F.C.W.A., director of public cleansing, Blackpool, to the Ministry of Health report on costing for public cleansing, and to the Ministry's costing returns, which served as useful guides to an important function. The title of the paper was "Costing as Applied to Public Cleansing."
Considering the respective merits of manual and mechanical methods of costing, he pointed out that there was a danger, in the case of the latter, that costs would he raised by the very act of installing costly plant. Whether simple or involved, however, the system should in any case give speedy and accurate returns.
Securing Uniformity in Data To obtain uniformity and to aid comparison there must be costing units and standard measurements of performance such as: Cost per ton, per 1,000 gullies cleansed, per gully cleansed by one vehicle, per 1,000 population per day and per annum, per 1,000houses per annum, weight per 1,000 population per day, vehicle and hourly rate, machine-hour rate, cwt. per man-hour, cwt. per vehicle-hour, and cost per 10,000 sq. yds, of street cleansed.
Such measurements, however, were useless unless there was standardization of practice on costs and allocation of expenditure and income to the various services operated by the municipality.
The main items of expense under the various heads of service should be allocated for each of khe weeks of the year, allowance being made for any special expenditure likely to fall due in this direction during any of the particular weeks of the year. The cost of such services as refuse collection and disposal, street cleansing and gully emptying was often a drain on the resources of the smaller authorities. Often, acting in their separate spheres, they were, because of financial circumstances, prone to employ antiquated and costly methods, whereas by the practice of an established economic principle they could combine and operate up-to-date appliances and often effect considerable savings. The same principle could also be applied to district or regional disposal of refuse. All this would not involve any sacrifice of local autonomy.
Costing Bureau Wanted Mr. Lighten had often thought that public cleansing would be greatly assisted by the setting up of a costing and technical bureau, either by the Institute or by the Ministry of Health, for the collation of information and technical data, and from which could emanate periodical information sheets on the lines of the B.S.S. Information Sheets. The seed had already been sown by the Institute in the setting up of the several committees on aspects of public cleansing, the reports of which would be published soon. The extra step now required to be taken.
Efficient costing had achieved improvement in local accountancy and administration, improved vehicle and disposal-plant design, and closer attention to cleansing organization by local authorities, producing greater efficiency at less cost,
Lessons learned were that there should be:. (I) Minimum standards of cleansing applicable to districts; (2) grants in aid, subject to proven efficiency; (3) specialized control via the separate committee and separate department; (4) intensive planning; (5) full use of mechanical plant.