To think it's my bloody house and garden so I'll have a bbq or bonfire if i want too?

[Werkwerkwerkwerkwerkwerk]

Just as the title suggests really.

We're already confined to our homes for the most part, why are people now trying to control what we can and cannot do in our own gardens?

Need to find as much joy as possible or I'll join all the other near alcoholics that have evolved at this point.

We’ve got a pile of broken fence panels in our garden from the storms. Dh mended the fences, but no opportunity to dispose of the broken bits of wood before lockdown. Wouldn’t dream of burning it all on a bonfire though. We’ll live with it for now and get rid of it later 🤷🏼‍♀️

I have a thread running about this, OP and to answer your question, no, you should not be having bonfires.

My DD and I have asthma and they could easily induce an asthma attack. I can feel it on my chest as soon as they light one, which recently, is every day. Not great when there's a respiratory disease going round!

If you're not affecting anyone with what you're doing in your own space, then of course you should be able to do what you want, but this is different. It's completely selfish and inconsiderate. Not being able to dry your washing or sit and enjoy the sunshine in your own garden, because of a constant plume of smoke is one thing, but to actually have your health genuinely put at risk, is quite another.

If you don't care about any of that, then you could be fined £5000. Food for thought..

A bonfire in the middle of a pandemic of a respiratory virus is a really bad idea. My husband is asthmatic and ends up on steroids and antibiotics regularly, thanks to other people's bonfires. Right now with the pressure on the NHS is a really bad time to be doing things that make other people ill.

It’s fine to do what you want in the confines of your garden, but bonfires go outside your garden boundary causing a pain for other people.

Bonfires should be banned completely
Hilarious.

It’s fine to do what you want in the confines of your garden, but bonfires go outside your garden boundary causing a pain for other people.
See also cats :)

So you don't have a composter?

Not everyone has one!

Bonfires in the summer are awful, nothing wrong with a BBQ though. Some of you must have been to some dodgy BBQs, sweaty burgers, cremated sausages?

Bbq fine. Bonfire no. Nobody can leave their house and gardens so you're trapping them in their homes with the windows shut so you can have a fire. Were meant to keep our homes ventilated. The smoke will make it harder for ill people to breath. Also, if it gets out of hand you're calling on an already strained emergency service. The fire service has asked everyone not to. So no to bonfires for many many selfish and dangerous reasons.

Those of you who agree with OP or have bonfires yourselves - how would you feel if your child caught cv19 and as you watch them struggling to breathe and need your windows open as medically advised, your neighbours light their bonfires???

8 pages of people repeating what everyone else has said.

I don’t think the OP is coming back.

From my local council’s Environmental Health department:

*Please do not have bonfires at this time of national lockdown. Coronavirus can affect anyone and cause significant respiratory problems for people who contract the illness.

This means that people who are treating their symptoms at home may need to have windows and doors open to help with their breathing. Smoke from bonfires is likely to drift and cause problems for others in your neighbourhood.

Smoke from bonfires will only make those people currently suffering from respiratory illness struggle more, whether or not coronavirus is the main cause. Asthma and COPD affect the lungs and make breathing more difficult at times for people with those medical conditions.

Please think carefully before having a fire - you don't know who the smoke may effect or how it will effect them.

Stay Home, Stay Safe, Stay Bonfire Smoke Free.*

Also been posted using different wordings by the local police force.

BBQs fine. Bonfires no. Stop being a selfish arse.

@Intelinside57
8 pages of people repeating what everyone else has said

Yep, the OP sure seems to have ignited something 🔥

@Izzabellasasperella
Scotland
Also noone has wood burners for heating round here, I just don't think that they're efficient enough when it regularly gets to -13 in winter 🤷‍♀️

BBQ is completely legitimate.

Bonfires, the fire service have asked people not to have them as there is a risk they could get out of control and the service is trying to help with other emergencies.
Normally...not during pandemic...I’m ok with bonfires after dark if people have big enough gardens. Myself and all my family have asthma so I know what it’s like before people get on that bandwagon....

One of our neighbour's gardeners started a big bon fire - so huge I thought there was a house fire a few weeks ago and has been doing it every week. It comes even into my own house as the windows are not tightly sealed! Our lcoal council 2 days after take £145 for the annual garden waste removal have stopped that service for now due to lock down (but only after they took everyone's money for the year) so there will be even more burning. Thankfully I think that neighbour's gardener has not been able to come for 3 weeks so no more anti social fires or perhaps that is just because the children of the family are now in the garden and they don't want those ones smoked out but are more than happy to smoke out neighbours. As the father is an NHS doctor I don't want to suggest they are a bad family - in fact they may not even know their gardener has all these fires.

At the start of the lockdown, one set of our neighbours were doing this thing where they’d spend the morning clearing the garden, and the afternoon burning the subsequent garden waste on a bonfire.

I found it very annoying. It was warm and sunny, so perfect weather for letting the kids play in the garden and burn some energy off, and there was so much smoke blowing into our garden that I couldn’t let the kids out. Fortunately they seem to have run out of garden waste now.

I understand why they wanted a bonfire, our garden waste collections have been pushed right back and our tips are closed, but bonfires do stop other people enjoying their gardens, and can aggravate respiratory conditions, so it’s pretty antisocial, especially if they’re lit at a time of day when neighbours are likely to be using their gardens.

I think BBQ’s are less of an issue, there’s usually far less smoke from a BBQ so they’re not as intrusive from a neighbours point of view.

I think bonfires are tricky. If you're closely surrounded by other houses and they're going to get the smoke then no. If you're rural with fields behind you and the wind is going to blow the smoke that way, then I think it's ok to have one.

Oh and not everyone has a compost bin, they’re not the norm where we live at all.

You know you’re allowed to do something even if no one else you know is doing it?

That poster said she had so much garden waste she had to put it in a skip (so it went to landfill rather than being returned to the earth). I just felt If she had a composter It might help reduce the huge amount of garden waste she seemed to be generating.

I think bonfires in the winter/autumn are OK, and I don't mind them myself because I like the smell. But having them now when everyone is in their garden is inconsiderate

Yesterday my neighbour on one side and the house opposite both had bonfires. Gives me a headache so I had to sit indoors with the windows shut. I'm baffled as to how people can be so selfish. Dicks.

Unless you can guarantee that every bit of ash and smoke remains within your boundary (which you clearly can't) then you are being unreasonable.

You are also being selfish, inconsiderate and a total pain in the butt neighbour.

There are people seriously ill from a serious respiratory illness. There may be some near you trying to recover. Help them by putting their needs above your wants.

The fire service have asked people not to have bonfires. So sorry you are being unreasonable. Yes it's your garden but unless your house is nowhere near anyone else's then you have a responsibility to think of others as well as yourself.

Apparently its not the law anymore that you can't have bonfires before dusk. One neighbour was telling another, at volume with plenty of f bombs thrown in for good measure, when the first neighbour asked her to wait until the evening. It is apparently, her f-ing right to do as she likes. Classy, really classy.

I don't know if that's true but its massively antisocal and inconsiderate.

Why do people even need to have a bonfire?

Because the tips are shut!

We have a massive heap of prunings from work we did in the garden before the lockdown. When they closed the council tip, we had a bonfire (about 9.30pm, and when the weather was still cool), which got rid of about half of it, and burned the smaller bits in a garden incinerator, but there's still loads on the grass at the far end of the garden.

It's now got grass growing through it, we can't strim round it, it's sprouting ivy and clematis and I think if we can't do something with it soon we'll end up with a massive overgown mound of crap.

We contemplatied getting a woodchipper to reduce the bits to a size that could be put into sacks, but when we looked at them, even those that are £100s will only take bits up to are 30-40mm in diameter and some of the branches we have are 2-3 times that.

Fuck knows what we're going to do with it all, but we're not burning it. I can understand people who love their gardens having bonfires though.

We're resigned to not being able to use half the garden this year.