Neighbours lit bonfire before 4pm

[Bonfiredrama]

it was a very sunny day last week - I had 2 loads of washing out and my mum and kids were in the garden. Neighbours next door have a 3ft fence between our gardens. My kids were playing near the fence and my mum was sitting out watching them while I popped to the shop around 3.30.

The neighbour had started lighting a bonfire and chucking all sorts of stuff on it from around the garden (my mum said flames were about 6ft high)

My mum shouted over politely: ‘hey we have kids playing outside here and washing on the line, please can you put that out’. The neighbour can’t communicate very well in English but we usually get by with pleasantries etc. She started shouting and saying that my mum can’t tell her what to do and that she was being rude.

the daughter came out and my mum was explaining about the kids and the washing. The daughter screamed ‘I don’t give a fuck about your kids” - with my kids right there in earshot. My 6 year old could easily understand what she said.

I am fuming particularly about screaming in front of my kids. AIBU? What would you do? I have their landlord details but I don’t know what to do next. I don’t really want to go down the council route as we will have to declare it if we move house.

An occasional bonfire may be inconsiderate but as a one off, it is unlikely to be a statutory nuisance, unless it is for an extended period of time.

I would have just got the washing in, and got the kids in and told them to play inside.

So your council has actually put it in writing to not light a bonfire on a fine day, when people are using their gardens with children or elderly out or have washing drying!!! Surely this is a windup!?

Yes breathing in smoke is bad for children. It's bad for everyone. Surely you've heard about people dying from smoke inhalation?

It's really inconsiderate to have a bonfire when the weather is nice enough for people to be outside enjoying their gardens. Very occasionally someone will do it where I live and the local WhatsApp group explodes with rage! Some people really have no consideration for how their actions affect others. It baffles me.

TBF I'm surprised more councils don't enforce a no smoke/bonfire zone but by not doing so it can only be assumed that burning lord knows what and sending smelly bonfire smoke into the air it doesn't damage the environment at all.

People still have them because they are allowed...

Christ, why can't we just have laws about bonfires and noisy power tools like sensible countries.

I don't mind fires, but there's a time and a place, I think at 4pm is selfish personally, there is literally no reason they couldn't have done it two/three hours later when people's washing and kids are inside.. especially with a 3ft fence which isn't stopping any hot ash or smoke from blowing over.. it's typically of the me me me society we live in though, a lot of people don't care how their actions affect other people, and react badly when called out for it.. they're selfish twats, very much like the people that throw their rubbish out of car windows IMO.. that pisses me right off too.

If I was out with the hosepipe at the time this happened I would have 100% doused it, because her swearing in front of my kids would have tipped me over the edge in that moment.

If I had to get the garage keys, then get the hosepipe, then walk and connect it in the house, then go back out and do it.. you're right, I probably would have had a word with myself in the process and calmed down.

Your mum needs help with her anxiety imo

Does she always catastophise so much?

Are bonfires before 4pm more likely to do this then?

Genuinely I’ve never heard anyone scream in my life. On here everyone is at it, and without provocation. They start screaming,

hyperbole much,