Smoke control area
Within a smoke control area, it is an offence:
- to emit smoke from a domestic chimney
- for any person or company to obtain or deliver unauthorised fuels to a building (unless an exempt appliance is in use)
- to use ordinary wood and bituminous coal.
Smoke control areas only restrict smoke from domestic chimneys and do not cover domestic and commercial bonfires.
Report domestic chimney smoke
Open fires
You will need to obtain either:
Burning wood or coal
You can only burn wood chips, pellets, logs or coal in an exempt appliance. These are appliances (ovens, wood burners and stoves) that have been exempted under the Clean Air Act. These have passed tests to confirm that they are capable of burning an unauthorised or inherently smoky solid fuel without emitting smoke.
View current exempt appliances (opens new window)
Emissions of dark smoke from commercial chimneys
Under the Clean Air Act, further powers exist that control dark smoke emissions from chimneys. Please notify us immediately so that an investigation can be made.
Certain industrial sites are issued with an environmental permit, which controls emissions to air.
Neighbour has smoke coming from their chimney
We will write to both parties to explain these requirements and confirm the type of fuel being burned. This may be sufficient to resolve the matter at an early stage. Non-compliance will trigger monitoring visits and necessary enforcement action will then be taken.