I want to know whether I have a case here. Motivation is not financial, but one solely based on failure of local environment agency to apply the law in relation to bonfires. I have raised numerous complaints with the dept (who are based 200m from home) regarding residents who burn green garden material and completely smoke out the who area.

The law states they can be fined 5k for causing a nuisance. Every time I complain I get told we have to prove it is a ‘statutory nuisance’. If bringing your washing in, vacating the garden and closing all windows is not a nuisance then I don’t know what is. The local environmental officer cannot define ‘statutory nuisance’.

I did a freedom of information request regarding number of complaints in the last 5 years and the number of abatement orders issued. The result was 255 complaints with a big fat zero for prosecutions.

I am so fed up with the lack of action from the dept that I think it’s not fit for purpose.

Is it not a fundamental human right to be able to be in your garden without getting lung fulls of smoke from a bonfire?

Is it not a fundamental human right to be able to be in your garden without getting lung fulls of smoke from a bonfire?

Do you know, I think it is.

If it’s just residents, how much garden waste can they produce to burn to cause so much nuisance?

If it’s just residents, how much garden waste can they produce to burn to cause so much nuisance?

The bonfires have been going for 6 hours so far. Oh, and it was garden waste collection day today too.

What a waste of everyone’s time and effort…

Councils are encouraging people to burn

If it’s just residents, how much garden waste can they produce to burn to cause so much nuisance?

Tones of the stuff.

Our garden isn’t particularly big, we just try our best to maintain it, and it’s generated about a 8ftx4ft by as deep as we can pile it trailer of rubbish every week this year! OK so it’s a new to us house and even scarifying the lawn generated about 3m3 this week!

Add to that tree pruning, hedges cut, fruit bushes, grass clippings, the grape vine, we could be quite anti-social if we burnt it!

The bonfires have been going for 6 hours so far. Oh, and it was garden waste collection day today too.

We tried using that, gave up when we realised even grass clippings took up about 3x the allocated bin! Now we compost the soft stuff and have a mid sized trailer for the harder stuff.

No idea what the law actually states, but how often is it happening?

I’m tempted to burn mine. For the 3rd time in a row they have left my brown bin of grass on the pavement. No idea why, they were emptying them on the next road when I left this morning.

Hi
I’ll do my best to point you in the right direction here and will start by clarifying a couple of issue:
1. You refer to the local environment agency but what you mean is environmental health dept. Both exist and are very different. The former is a government agency and the latter exists within your local Council and it is this dept that is responsible here.
2. You do have a right to enjoy your home and garden as you describe however there is no actual legislation that prohibits people burning garden waste as long as they do it responsibly.
3. From what you’re describing they aren’t so your first step HAS to be making a complaint to the Council that your complaint has not been dealt with properly.
4. When you originally complained your complaint should have been investigated and normally you would be asked to keep a diary of how often the problem occurs and how it affects you. When you return them the investigating officer would make a judgement on whether a statutory nuisance exists and notify you of that decision. This will depend on frequency of events, duration, time of events etc etc.
5. If this or something similar didn’t happen then you should complain to the “internal complaints” department who will look at how your original complaint was dealt with and whether it was correct. If they decide it was not you maybe offered compensation and the department will be made to look at the issue again. If they decide it was then that would be the end of it.
6. UNLESS you still disagree with this decision in which case you have to complain to the Local Goverment Ombudsman who are an independent arbitrator of local authorities. They will see if you have been dealt with fairly and again, if not you may be offered compensation and the Council instructed to remedy the situation.
7. I do not know of a mechanism where you can take the Council to court-the way forward is as above.

Hope this helps but if you wants any further info just shout
Cheers
Steve

Take it to the European Court of Human Rights if you think your human rights are being trodden on. 😉

If its that much of a nuisance call the fire service, I’ll put them out but I’m nasty that way 😉

Taking them to court would be by judicial review, unless you have £20k plus to waste you won’t even get through the door of the high court.

As fatgit says the way to take it forward would be through the council complaint then ombudsman route. This can only be for how they investigate, if they have investigated and said not a nuisance then there is probably nothing you can do.

How often are the bonfires? Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly? The threshold for a stat nuisance is fairly high, it has to be more than an annoyance.

You can take your own private action under Section 82 of the EPA 1990, that cuts out the council all together and you go straight to the magistrates court.

Hi me again.
There is another route the Council can take and that is a fairly new system relating to anti-social behaviour and has a lower burden of proof than stat nuisance.
The Council can serve a warning notice called a CPN (Community Protection Notice) on the people causing the problem and it asks them “nicely” to stop being antisocial. If this is ignored then they serve a CPN notice wgich if not complied with can lead to the perpetrator being prosecuted.
What constitutes being antisocial is quite wide ranging and can include bonfires, noise, feeding pigeons, revving cars etc etc
We are using it quite a lot now and it’s quite successful.
Cheers
Steve

The threshold for a stat nuisance is fairly high, it has to be more than an annoyance.

That is the problem. From where I sit once is too often. They are maybe 3-4 times a month from some resident in the vicinity. As you’d expect they always light them when the wind is blowing away from their house directly towards those behind them.

The trouble with the council process of complaining and completing a diary is that the horse has already bolted.

As has been stated above. I have a feeling that it would have to happening 2-3 times a week before the council deem it a nuisance.

I will take a look at Section 82 of the EPA 1990.

@Fatgit – Thanks. I will discuss this with the Environmental Health Dept (thanks for the correction) and ask why they are not using these powers instead From the heated conversations I have had with them I don’t hold out much hope.

I also find it very frustrating that they refuse to come out and take a look whilst the offence is happening. It’s just across the road from the offices.

@flanagaj
I find it odd that they won’t come out when it’s happening over the road. We certainly would even if t was just in an attempt to sort it informally. I would expect my staff to respond.
Cheers
Steve

If it’s a neighbour.. Just spay the hose over the fence until the smoke stops

Weekly would be a significant frequency of disturbance for bonfires. If they won’t come out to witness when they are happening, then that does indicate that they have not sufficiently investigated the complaint.

@flanagaj
I find it odd that they won’t come out when it’s happening over the road. We certainly would even if t was just in an attempt to sort it informally. I would expect my staff to respond.
Cheers
Steve

Many thanks for that. I won’t quote you, but I will add that to my complaint. I am starting to feel that the individual I am dealing with is purposely not making an effort given I have called up so many times to report instances and asking why nothing is ever done.

Councils are encouraging people to burn

They’re certainly not discouraging it; the local council asked residents what their choice would be out of:
Keeping free collection but only for the six months of spring/summer/early autumn, or a £40/month charge for 12 monthly collection.
The choice was free for six months so the council chose to impose a yearly charge!
Clearly an unequivocal democratic decision there!
👿
I bought an incinerator, but I’m careful to avoid using it when people are likely to be out in their gardens, though.

So where does a smoke control zone fit into the legislation?

I live backing onto allotments and although the entire district of bolsover is a smoke control zone and hence bonfires, Coal fires and any other sort of smoke generation is prohibited, there are daily fires around the site.
Most of these are not a major issue, but occasionally you get the odd numpty that sets light to half a ton of wet grass on a windless day stinking out the whole village.

You could guarantee they’d be round asap if I burnt anything other than smokeless fuel though!

district of bolsover

There’s your problem, right there.

Nimby tastic

Not really.

If they are going to lay out legislation to prevent an action, they should at least make a pretence of enforcing it.

Have you gone round and told them their smoke is a nuisance when it happens?

Smoke control zones only apply to smoke from a chimney.

You can burn coal in a smoke control zone as long as it’s in a DEFRA approved appliance.

Have you spoken to the person responsible for the burning and told them how it affects your ?

That surely would be the first step,

nickdavies – Member
I’m tempted to burn mine. For the 3rd time in a row they have left my brown bin of grass on the pavement. No idea why, they were emptying them on the next road when I left this morning.

They probably don’t take grass, so won’t take your bin if it’s full of it.

A) it’s actually a fire risk as it can get very hot as it decomposes if you get the right combination of moisture and compaction (keep compost heaps moist and turn regularly to prevent compaction).

B) it doesn’t actually compost very well, which is where the garden waste ends up, in a giant composter.

Have you gone round and told them their smoke is a nuisance when it happens?

Have you tried having a conversation with a Neanderthal? His response was “If I want to have a bonfire, I will have a bonfire! It’s my right”

Garden incineration is particularly bad for producing dioxins and furans.. Surprised the council think it’s OK to release a pile of cancer causing agents into your local environment. Why isn’t the waste taken to the local recycling facility or compost stuff at home. Garden incineration has to be the stupidest way of disposing of waste.

2. You do have a right to enjoy your home and garden as you describe however there is no actual legislation that prohibits people burning garden waste as long as they do it responsibly.

Was interested in this becuase we are – as mentioned in the deeds in a smoke control zone. But…

Smoke control zones only apply to smoke from a chimney

. … i didnt know that.

Anyway our issue – same as the OP’s got resolve becuase our border with the neighbours is 7-8 shrubbery. Last summer 15 foot flames next to the shrubs / our garage which forms part of the border one evening meant a call to the Fire Brigade who put out the fire, gave them a lecture and charged them something like £400.

Hasn’t happened this year.

What about if plastic bags are being burnt on the bonfire like our batshit mental neighbour likes to do?

I’m enjoying the irony of this particular OP complaining that his neighbour doesn’t want to fit in to the community in a neighbourly way and feels they should be able to do whatever they want (probably while still enjoying the benefits of being part of the community).

Particularly liked this bit.

flanagaj
Have you tried having a conversation with a Neanderthal? His response was “If I want to have a bonfire, I will have a bonfire! It’s my right”

Did your neighbour decide to #take back control of his garden

Just me?

I suspect the answer has a lot to do with this

https://www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2015/jan/14/council-cuts-burden-falls-again-on-north-and-inner-cities
I’m assuming it’s a labour council they’ve had the biggest. http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/9195108

Bolsover has had some of the biggest cuts to council funding in the country,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30537288

I would suggest you have a better chance of getting something done about the issue by keeping positive assertive relations with council rather than drawing battle lines.

Might be worth trying to have another chat with neighbour after things have calmed down, if at least the burning is restricted to certain times then that might significantly reduce inconvience to you.

If the problem is bad\frequent and enforcement type action is the only way forwards then evidence is key, e.g. photos\video of each incident.

Talk to your local councillors, there is probably a local meeting every quarter where items like this could be put on the agenda.

Try to arrange a meeting with the relevant council officer to talk through the problems and how they migjt be able to help.

If the problem affects several people it is more motiviting to raise these issues to councillors/council as a group. Is there is a local neighbourhood group? If so worth talking to them to see if they can help raise the issue with the council and get meetings with the council officers etc.

I do not know of a mechanism where you can take the Council to court-the way forward is as above.

The method would be a judicial review, but unless there is a compelling reason for the matter to hear the case i.e. it is a serious problem and all other avenues such as ombudsman have been explored then the judge is probably not going to agree to hear the case.

Smoke control zones only apply to smoke from a chimney
. … i didnt know that.

Ditto…
So what’s the point of that then?!

Back in the day the E.A. would of dealt with this but we are now told not to attend this type of thing or just write a letter. Blame the cuts implemented by the current government.

To get it sorted you need to do the following
Report it it every time it happens 0800 80 70 60 get other people to report it. Multiple reports help.
Record the incident number it will be on a system called NIRS
Then go to your MP with the incident numbers and get him involved, you will be amazed how quickly people react when an MP gets involved.

The complaint procedure definitely works around the Chesterfield area as some nimbly **** complained about us having bonfires at work. We’d only ever burn clean pallets and wood etc but oh no. Threats of fines etc etc

You can burn self generated material such as garden clippings etc. You can not bring material back to a place and burn it.

You can’t burn packaging pallets fall into this category. You should not burn waste, you can argue the definition of waste, you won’t get very far.

I dealt with a market trader bringing back all the packaging such as cardboard boxes polystyrene trays etc, it saved him £20 a week. It made his neighbours lives miserable. Hie used the same excuse wasn’t harming anyone, it’s only cardboard. When I visited the site the so called cardboard also had pallets, two tyres that some “kids” had chucked on. Strangely they were the same size tyres that were on his van and the van coincidentally had two new tyres.

He stopped doing it and hence his neighbours weren’t subjected to this, he was also a bullying asshat who when one of his neighbours approached him told her to **** off.

Trouble is burning is now low priority due to cuts, hence we very rarely go unless it is on a large scale and we get multiple reports.

This time of year why not encourage neighbours to collect their garden waste on one big pile. Maybe put an effigy of the main offending guy on top of it (call it ‘guy’ so nobody knows you mean him). Crikey, the kids could do that. Maybe they could do a charity collection too.
Then in a 6 weeks or so, when it’s had time to dry out, get all your neighbours round and burn it. You could do food – have jacket spuds or toffee apples maybe too