To think setting a fire in your backyard on a summer day is really antisocial?

[CailinDana]

The neighbours whose garden backs onto ours have just started a bonfire. As a result my house stinks of smoke and I can't hang out my washing. I'm pretty pissed off.

Is this an unusual thing or something to be expected with neighbours? I've never had it happen before.

It is banned here in the proper smoke (London) but people still sneakily do it, but it is a rare problem. There isn't really any excuse for doing it slap bang in the middle of the day though, is there?

ariadne maybe the OP and her neighbours would like to seize the opportunity to dry their washing outside, let their kids run around in the garden etc. Why should one neighbour ruin this for all of them.

This is a bit of a sore spot as we had one summer during my childhood badly affected by one neighbour and their bonfires until a delegation of neighbours went to tell them that if they didn't stop they would report them to the council. The neighbour did stop but with very bad grace.

YANBU I wish people would wait until the evening, I hate the smell of bonfires blowing in through my windows or the smell on my washing. Imho it is selfish to do it in the middle of a pleasant summery day if you have near neighbours, and I can't really think of any circumstances where it's just so urgent to have a bonfire that it can't wait til the evening or a day of less nice weather!

Exactly Chaz and Mrswoz. DS has asked me a couple of times if he can go out in the garden, and I've had to say no. I did take him out to the park earlier but now I'm waiting for a delivery so we're stuck inside. There's still smoke billowing into our garden, the place stinks.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude

exactly, nealry all of one half term i wasnt able to go out or put washing out because of a handful of bonfires. AND we live two mins from municpal rubbish site.

As long as they aren't burning old tyres or something esle toxic, I'm puzzled why your ds can't play outside ? I love it when mine come back from camp smelling of camp fire - it's a lovely smell.
As the first response said though, like parties, as an occasional thing, it's fine. If it were every other day, then you'd have something to complain about.

round my way (glasgow area) its against the law,the neighbour at the back of me got fined twice (you would think once is enough) second fine was £500,fire brigade out both times.

I'm not sure what they're burning but the wind seems to be blowing towards my house so that the smoke is coming directly into my garden, so much so that when I was out there briefly earlier it made me cough. I don't want DS out in that.

valium why don't you recycle things? burning stuff just isn't needed these days. In my area, you're not allowed anyway!

IN fact there is NO need to burn anything! Recycling bins are for paper and card....garden waste goes in the green waste bin...does not everyone get these things?

We have more cardboard than will go in the recycling bin.

Where my parents live, there was a bye-law or something that bonfires could only be started after 6pm, I think it was, precisely to avoid this kind of neighbour disturbance.
Seems only fair.

You could check your local bye-laws with the Council if you feel that strongly about it (although it's a bit late in the day now).

YANBU, btw. :)

We burn garden waste tooTSN as we have loads once we have cut the hedge trees.

Valium us too...we just put it in bags by the bin...the men take it away anyway as they have to....not if it's household rubbish...then we only have one bins worth and anything else gets left...but recycling they have to take.

I don''t understand why people don't have garden waste collections and things? We do....are we one of only a few?

No Nerd, we have garden waste collection here too, which is why I don't understand why they're burning it. We have a tonne of garden waste that we could burn but we're not going to as I don't see it as our right to pollute the air for our neighbours.

After we have cut the hedge which needs doing roughly every month to stay on top of it, we end up with at least 4 wheelie bins full. We have bought a shredder but that take s a lot of time so sometimes burning is quicker if we are busy, but as I say, we burn late in the evenings and always on a sunday and have talked to our neighbours about it. They all have BBQs every 5 mins in the summer too - we're all pretty tolerant thank goodness.

valium your LA will provide you (at no cost to you) with as many blue lidded (cardboard and bottle) wheelie bins as you can fill, they dont charge as it fits in with there reduce waste up recycleing thingy that there always going on about i have 4 full sized cardboard and bottle wheeliebins outside my house as long as i fill them all up more often than i dont im ok to keep them.it took a quick phone call to enviromental health waste collection team took a few weeks for them to deliver the extra ones but ive now had them at least a year it works well for me hth

There you go Valium...free bins! Its better than bonfires.

We don;t have blue lidded wheelie bins - I would need 4 full size wheelie bins and have nowhere to store them.

CailinDana

I have a moutain of it at bottom of garden my bro keeps saying put a match to it - then he himself moans with his bad chest when someone burns.
I couldnt put anyone else through it myslef either, and if we do ever get rid of it - it will be into the car and to the rubbish site.
I just hope your not like us and someone else wants to burn tomorow!

with the garden stuff it sounds like your compleatly considerate about it that your neighbours are ok with it so it shouldnt be a problem at all you dont have to defend it, now fancy popping down mine to chop down a leylandi thats bigger than my house then helping me burn it lol

We have a bloody leylandi as well Opps - I hate it. It's a bloody monster.

Honesty we couldn't get it all in the car - no way. And is using the car to get rid of waste really worse than a quick bonfire late in the evening?

what on earth do they expect you to put your recycleing in? please tell me its not those tiny black lidded bins? there about as much use as tits on a fish