Smoke complaints
Smoke which amounts to a nuisance can be either continuous, or intermittent, but in either case the effect on your comfort or quality of life must be a material one and your response to the smoke must be wholly reasonable.
Smoke from bonfires can cause health problems in people vulnerable to poor air quality. You will suffer no serious harm if you are only briefly exposed to bonfire smoke, but anyone suffering from asthma, bronchitis or heart conditions may be more affected.
What we can help with
An officer may serve an abatement notice if they are satisfied that there is a statutory nuisance. This includes:
- smoke emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance
- fumes or gases emitted so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance
- smell arising on industrial, trade or business premises and being prejudicial to health or a nuisance
You could be liable to the following fines if you do not comply with an abatement notice:
- industrial or commercial premises - a criminal conviction and an unlimited fine
- domestic premises - a criminal conviction and a fine up to £5,000
If you are being affected now
If you are being affected by nuisance, you can call our customer services team on 01782 717717 and advise us that you have a problem now.
Please note that you must be being affected:
- at the current moment and
- it's between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. and,
- it's a weekday.
Subject to officer availability, we will try to witness an issue where we can. We do not offer an out-of-hours service.
If you are not currently being affected
To tell us about a complaint online, you will need to register for a MyAccount. Registration is free, easy and normally takes less than a couple of minutes.