Councillors are being asked to approve the development of a citywide smoke control area, which would ban the use of non-certified woodburning stoves, by next year.
Burning wood on an open fire would also be outlawed, although smokeless fuels could still be burnt.
Burning seasoned wood in a stove approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) would still be allowed.
The measure is one of several in Brighton and Hove City Council’s Air Quality Action Plan, which councillors are asked to approve today.
A report going before the Environment, Transport and Sustainability committee this afternoon recommends: “That the committee requests officers to prioritise the development and delivery of a citywide Smoke Control Area to help tackle the harmful effects of particulate matter.”
About half of Brighton – including the city centre, St Jame’s Street, Hanover and Bevendean – is already designated a smoke control area.
Households burning outlawed fuel can be fined up to £300 by the council if it decides a household is producing too much smoke, or up to £1,000 for burning unauthorised fuel without an exempt appliance.
Outdoor barbecues, fire pits, pizza ovens and chimineas can still be used to burn any fuel.
The Air Quality Action Plan has 60 recommendations to improve air quality, aiming to increase active travel, public transport use and the need to travel, the uptake of low and zero-emission vehicles, monitoring and public awareness and emissions from buildings.
Councillor Amy Heley, co-chair of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability committee said: “I’m pleased we’ve been bold and ambitious in setting out our plans to improve air quality in Brighton & Hove.
“Air pollution is responsible for thousands of deaths in England every year and we need to do more to reduce harmful emissions which directly impact on the air we breathe.
“The quality and quantity of feedback provided into our consultation demonstrates the demands for higher standards for air quality in the city. Alongside improving our reporting and monitoring that is what we’ve done in this plan.
“These measures, together with the work we’re already doing, means we can work towards cleaner air for a healthier Brighton and Hove.”
In the mean time…
What the people want is: a council that ensures the rubbish is collected, streets safe a clear of beggars and druggies, spending that is under control – targeted – properly accounted for . That the council-tax paying citizens are the FIRST concern of the councilors NOT their grandiose play-acting at being world-leaders..
Get a grip of get lost.
Currently 8% of the population are burning solid fuels and that accounts for more pollution than all the cars on the road. Something needs to be done and one wonders why this hasn’t been tackled before.
If this happens I will march on the council offices. You will only take my wood-burning stove if you take it from my cold dead hands.
> You will only take my wood-burning stove if you take it from my cold dead hands.
The ironic punch line to that is you’ll then get cremated and go up in smoke…
Yes – that’s right keep the poor cold and hungry while you blame others..
The council are busy issuing cheer leader policies, presumably ahead of next year’s elections. But you have to wonder in this case how any ban on ‘smokey’ woodburners will be policed, so this is probably more hot air.
If you already have a wood burner it’s doubtful you’ll have to change it. it’s also ironic that many of us are using wood burners to heat single rooms, rather than use the central heating – because of rising energy costs.
The key to good woodburning is to get a stove which does ‘secondary combustion’ which means it recycles the initial smoke over a hot plate within the stove to burn off the smoke particles. You then get much less smoke going up your chimney.
You then restrict your fuel to well seasoned hardwood logs – where the low moisture content means less smoke when they burn.
If you’re old school and used to open fires then I guess you have to stop using the fire or your stove for burning rubbish that you can’t recycle – because vegetable peelings or packaging will produce a lot of smoke when burned.
I write this having had a woodburner in our Hanover house for over thirty years, and in the winter it was as loved as a family pet.
Sadly, I don’t have one now as the installation costs at my current flat proved to be unaffordable for a ‘clean burn’ stove.
The council is incapable of enforcing anything- planning breaches ignored, no attempts to stop cycling on the promenade in the summer, negligible noise nuisance enforcement, shabby derelict beach huts allowed to persist….. all talk and no action. Track record speaks for itself.
Fire pits- bonfires- chimineas are ok but an efficient stove isn’t? Woke madness in Brighton I see.
So it looks like I supposedly live in a smoke controlled area, yet when I complained that my neighbour was having at least two bonfires a week on the hottest days of the summer, apparently they were doing nothing wrong. But you can’t burn wood to keep warm. Odd.
Build a bonfire
Build a bonfire…..
Quite right. Bit surprised that the city was not already covered.
Nobody should be using an open fire or a non-smokeless zone compliant stove these days. Nor burning damp wood.
We have a wood stove that meets the latest eco stove requirements, but we are cutting down on use and will phase it out at some point.
Sorry peeps, but we have to be grown up about this and think of others.
The biggest problem in my area (besides traffic fumes) is BONFIRES, the worst case being a property developer whose workmen burned off their rubbish in the back garden. Will bonfires be banned? Smokey BBQs plague us occasionally, but usually people are OK if you ask them to re-position their BBQs. A lot of it is about consideration for others (sadly lacking sometimes). Development at Toad’s Hole Valley will bring more traffic in and more pollution. Anyone who’s had pneumonia or suffers from asthma, etc, knows how frightening it can be when the air is bad.
Surely it would be wise to wait until winter is over?
Folk are having bonfires because they can avoid the demeaning treatment they get at the local tip