To think that bonfires should be illegal?

[lavendertops]

I'm absolutely sick of them. Every other day some inconsiderate arsehole is burning one. Usually the same arsehole I might add.

We're not rural with plenty of land, all the gardens are close together. It's just an accident waiting to happen in this weather! I don't see the need for it, who has that much stuff to burn?!?

if you can afford a garden, it's part of the cost, sorry. There's no valid reason to smoke your neighours out. It's not just the smell and additional expense of having to rewash all your laundry, smoke is unhealthy and does cause problem. Why should others suffer and have to close all their windows out?

I don’t think i’ve Ever thought ‘hmm, don’t want this any more. I’ll burn it!’ Like pp’s have said managing your own property shouldn’t be impacting negatively on neighbors.

Most local authorities offer a garden waste collection service

Ours does, it's about £65 a year, fortnightly collection. It could do with being weekly during autumn leaf fall season (though we let some of ours break down as a pp mentioned).

It's not expensive, it's just that people have a thing about not paying for it because they think it should be covered by council tax. That is a separate debate, but it does not give you the right to have bonfires.

You can also buy a composter starting from £20ish, and tree surgeons deal with the wood when they cut trees. Even with a massive garden, you really don't need to have bonfires. At most maybe a yearly one in bad season with warnings to all your neighbours.

For a hefty fee. Yes

Sadly my neighbours have the same attitude, so they burn all their garden waste. I really love it when bits of ash and live embers float down into my garden. I like it when you have to close all your windows and take the washing in (or re wash it). In an urban setting lighting fires in your garden is just selfish.

They are not illegal as such, but I wouldn't hesitate to report them to the council is if it's more than once. From my local council:

Bonfires can be considered to be a statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act when causing a nuisance to neighbouring residents.

You cannot burn:

household or garden waste if it will cause pollution or harm people's health.
substances that cause noxious fumes or dark smoke. This may result in action being taken under the Clean Air Act 1993
plastics, rubber, household refuse, foam, painted timber or material contaminated with oil

Yes - especially in hot weather and in cities where there air quality is already pretty terrible. DD had an asthma attack last time our neighbours did one, and it wasn't even a huge fire or anything terrible being burnt - just too much on top of the base pollution level. Woodburners too, much as I love both a bonfire and a wood fire - it's just not worth the additional deaths in the young, ill and old...

www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/04/report-links-childs-asthma-death-to-illegal-levels-of-air-pollution

Just be glad you're not from NI

I've recently had to burn brambles. Their thorns are like razor blades so bagging them up isn't an option - i've got some nasty cuts from them. You can't compost them because they will then propogate. Experts say to burn them.
I'm saving the neighbours hassle as these brambles are encroaching on their property.
I spent one day burning them and am now digging out the roots in the hope i won't have to burn them again nnext year.

We had a neighbour (her father really) light a bonfire on Christmas Day one year to burn all the packaging of the presents. That was the one year when we had blue sky and sun on Christmas Day (West coast Scotland, it's usually grey and wet that time of the year) and the idiot is spoiling it with stinking black smoke.

We live in Maine, completely surrounded by woodland.

This time of year we love having a camp fire in the garden in the evenings. But to do so we needed to get a burn permit from our town council. Each evening we have to phone the 911 dispatch and tell them we are going to have a fire.