Smoke – Legal Controls
Environmental Protection Act 1990
Clean Air Act 1993
This Act makes it unlawful to have a bonfire on a business property that causes dark smoke. Dark smoke is defined legally in terms of “percentage obscuration”. In practice dark smoke is usually easy to spot since bonfires tend either to burn cleanly, with some grey smoke or be particularly dark. “Business premises” means any property on which a trade or business is carried on and includes building sites.
A clear example of dark smoke!
Seriously, there are several offences shown here including some waste disposal related offences which are enforced by the Environment Agency
Environmental Protection Act 1990
This act is designed to control smoke from businesses and homes, whether rented or owned by you. It means that the occupier of a business premise or house must not cause nuisance to other people through smoke. This covers smoke from bonfires, chimneys and boilers, in fact from all sources of combustion. A nuisance is not clearly defined in the act, but case law since the late 1800's has defined the term more clearly. Today it is accepted that to be a nuisance, smoke must meet the conditions set out below. It must:
- affect you at home or your place of work
- change what you do in your home or workplace to a significant extent
eg. it must be so dense in your garden that it prevents you sitting outside
eg. it makes you move rooms inside the house, leave the house or at the very least makes you uncomfortable
- occur either reasonably frequently, weekly or more often for short periods or continue for several days
Anything that does not meet all of the conditions above is unlikely to constitute a nuisance and we do not have control over bonfires which are not a nuisance.
Byelaws
There are no byelaws in Wealden concerning bonfires on domestic or commercial properties. Generally local authorities have not used their powers to make byelaws concerning bonfires because the existing legislation is good enough to deal with the problems that do occur.
Waste Regulation
Burning waste on a business site can be controlled by the provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for the disposal of waste. For further information please contact your nearest Environment Agency office who will be able to offer you more advice and guidance on the waste provisions. Any burning of commercial waste, which comes to our attention, is reported to the Environment Agency as a matter of routine.
