"Nightjar" wrote in message
...
On 16/08/2018 09:35, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
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Its not particularly onerous. But it does set a precedent for retroactive
building regulations which is slightly worrying.

There is no retroactive application of construction standards to septic
tanks. This legislation merely bans existing practices that may be
damaging to the environment. Precedents for that go back to 1306, when
Edward I banned the burning of coal in London. The Clean Air Act 1956 is a
more modern example, but virtually all environmental legislation does
something similar.

Gosh, I hadn't realised that coal smoke was a problem in London as far back
as 1306 with the *very* much smaller number of houses that long ago.