Over 5,600 wood burning complaints led to just four fines

New research by Mums For Lungs has exposed the ineffectiveness of complaining about the nuisance of domestic wood burning.

At a time when domestic wood burning is front and centre of the air quality debate, the public still have very little effective recourse if they are suffering from wood smoke in their neightbourhood.

A series of Freedom of Information requests has revealed that over the course of 12 months, local authorities in England received over 5,600 wood burning complaints from people who live in smoke control areas, yet only four fines were issued. 

In this context, wood burning includes both internal stoves and bonfires.

The questions Mums for Lungs put forward in their FOI request were:

Question 1: Please state how many complaints your local authority has received about smoke from domestic fires from Sept 2023 to August 2024 inclusive?

Question 2: Please state the number of enforcement actions taken by your local authority, in the following categories, against suspected breaches of smoke control area rules from Sept 2023 to August 2024 inclusive: i) Warning or guidance letters ii) Inspections or visits. iii) Penalty notices. iv)Prosecutions

Question 3: Please provide a copy of any guidance issued internally to council officers regarding the enforcement of alleged breaches of smoke control area rules.

Question 4: Please provide a copy of any reports or guidance produced by your council relating to the local implementation of the Air Quality (Domestic Solid Fuels Standards) (England) Regulations 2020 from 1 May 2021.

Question 5: How many of your social housing properties have open fires or wood burning stoves?

159 local authorities replied and of those, only four: Bolsover, Bristol, Horsham and Wakefield, had issued penalty notices for wood burning. Each had served one.

St Helen’s issued four abatement notices under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for nuisance from domestic burning and Norwich issued a community protection warning.

No other local authority took any action against wood burning but some were more active than others in terms of visit the properties in question.

Birmingham received the most complaints (783) but reported that they took no action at all by way of response.

Gedling responded to every complaint they received, saying : ‘All of the properties would have been contacted either through a letter informing them that the area they live in was a smoke control area and that it is an offence to emit smoke from a chimney in a smoke control area and that they could be issued with a fixed penalty notice or a visit from an officer explaining that the area is a smoke control area and giving advice. The letter also asks for details of the type of appliance they have and the type of fuel being used. This is also often followed up with a visit to the property.’

Sheffield were comparatively robust, sending out 135 letters and making ten inspections on the back of 208 complaints. Rachel Smedley, who lives in the city, said: ‘We’re surrounded by wood burning in this part of Sheffield. Nearly every house bought by young buyers has a wood burner. We inherited one with our house but have chosen never to use it as we knew enough about the harms of wood burning. I get really upset when I hear the kids in the local primary school playing outside in all the wood smoke.

‘One of my children suffers with their chest every winter which I’m pretty convinced is exacerbated (if not caused) by so much wood smoke in our immediate neighbourhood. Sometimes it’s so strong it hits you as soon as you open the front door and I know it seeps into our house. It makes you feel very powerless.’

Jemima Hartshorn, Mums for Lungs, said: ‘If you open your door on a cold night in any town, city or village you can smell the wood pollution. You wouldn’t want a truck pumping air pollution into your front room, but ironically even modern wood stoves cause six times the fine particle pollution of an HGV.

‘We’ve known about the health impacts of wood burning for decades. We need to make sure councils are given the tools and resources to protect children from toxic pollution and not just talk about the risks. The current system is obviously not fit for purpose.’

If a chimney releases smoke in a smoke control area in England, the maximum fine payable is £300 . This rises to £1,000 for the use of unauthorised fuel in an appliance not approved by DEFRA.

The responses to the FOI requests can be viewed here.