Households in England are being warned they could face fines of up to \u00a3300 if they use their chimney over the winter depending on where they live and their local council’s rules.<\/p>\n
While every house built before the 1990s probably has a chimney on the roof, most of us won\u2019t have used it for decades or possibly ever, and the fireplace itself may well be blocked up and inaccessible.<\/p>\n
But millions of people across the country still use their fireplace to heat<\/a> their home in the winter<\/a>, with traditional fuels such as coal, or have a wood burner fitted into the chimney.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, if your chimney starts belching out smoke, there are areas of the UK where you can be reported to the local council and fined, because of a rule around Smoke Control Areas.<\/p>\n Smoke Control Areas have rules in place governing exactly how much smoke can be emitted from your chimney. Smoke Control Areas are boundaries, agreed by local councils, which restrict the use of chimneys within them.<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t just limit the amount of smoke you can produce from a chimney, but is a blanket ban stopping you from emitting any smoke from your chimney at all. Many major cities in England fall under a Defra Smoke Control Area, including most of London, as well as most of Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle and Liverpool.<\/p>\n Section 19 of the Clean Air Act 1993 says you must pay \u00a3300 if too much smoke is being released from your chimney if you live in one of the areas covered by a Smoke Control Area.<\/p>\n As Direct Stoves explains: \u201cThe current limit on the amount of smoke your chimney can produce in a Smoke Control Area is 5g per hour, plus 0.5g for each kW of your stove’s heat output.<\/p>\n “However, there are plans to reduce this limit to 3g per hour, although when this will happen is not yet confirmed.<\/p>\n \u201cThese rules mean that only some people with a wood-burning stove or open fire will pay a fine for using it. Most modern wood burners available are DEFRA-approved, so many stove owners do not need to worry.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to upgrade an older wood burner that emits a lot of smoke or are considering installing a wood burner in your home for the first time, get an appliance that DEFRA has approved for use in Smoke Control Areas. A wood burner with this seal of approval is designed and tested to operate within the restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n Defra says in its guidance: \u201cOpen fires and wood-burning stoves have risen in popularity over recent years. Smoke from burning causes air pollution which harms the health of millions. We can work together to improve the quality of the air we breathe.<\/p>\n \u201cDid you know that certain areas of the country are designated as \u2018smoke control areas\u2019?<\/p>\n \u201cA smoke control area is a legally defined area where you cannot emit smoke from a chimney. You can be issued a financial penalty of between \u00a3175 to \u00a3300 if you break this rule.”<\/p>\n Cities in England which are fully or partly covered by a Smoke Control Area include:\u00a0<\/p>\n London (all of London, except West Ham)<\/p>\n Birmingham<\/p>\n Manchester<\/p>\n Sheffield<\/p>\n Leeds<\/p>\n Liverpool<\/p>\n Newcastle<\/p>\n Wakefield<\/p>\n Nottingham<\/p>\n Derby<\/p>\n Bristol<\/p>\n Bath<\/p>\n Stoke-on-Trent<\/p>\n Bradford<\/p>\n Preston<\/p>\n Leicester<\/p>\n Norwich<\/p>\n Peterborough<\/p>\n Hull<\/p>\n Doncaster<\/p>\n Wolverhampton<\/p>\n Worcester<\/p>\n Coventry<\/p>\n Milton Keynes<\/p>\n Reading<\/p>\n Portsmouth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Households in England are being warned they could face fines of up to \u00a3300 if they use their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,192685,393,4884,13385,192684,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-618689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-chimney","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-heating","13":"tag-log-burner","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115680349095432230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}