Smoke pollution home fire

[AgathaMayhem]

Neighbour a few doors along the road has a billowing chimney of smoke.
It fills the air in the street with unbelievably strong chemical toxic smelling smoke.
If I go in the garden whilst his chimney is puffing out smoke the smell is overpowering.
We are entertaining this evening and when I opened the window a guest said "Oh what is that bonfire smell? It's horrible!" And then other guests told me to shut the window as they started coughing from the toxic smoke coming in to the room in my lounge.
He is a tradesman and the whole street sees him emptying the contents of his van full of wood from building sites into his wood store. I have seen varnished wood and doors and all sorts of wood ripped out from houses and chucked in to his wood store on his driveway.
Can I report this? Who to?
He's not the sort of character I'd want to confront.

Report to environmental health at the council.

Would they act on it do you know?

Yes, they will investigate. In my council they look at black smoke. I’m not up to date with any recent changes but they used to not investigate white smoke. It must be ‘safer’ or something.

To add to the above, I would take a video of it happening, note the regularity and the effect it has on you. All info helps.

Does he have Building Control approval for the installation?

You may be able to check on line but again another stick to beat him with

I dont know.
Do you need building control to have a fire in ypur home - didn't realise this!

https://www.hetas.co.uk/regulations/

You may be able to check via your Local Authority website if they have building Regs for it

Environmental health can check for pollutants and whether flue/chimney is compliant

Yep. Even the approved legal ones fill the street with vile smell. Try measuring the air quality in your house when you can smell it. They should be banned.

He might be burning stuff he shouldn’t in which case environmental health will investigate but I think reporting it might count as a dispute you would have to declare if selling house. (Health is more important imo).

I can't see how I can search for an address using this?
It just tells me about hetas in general.

Their chimney is billowing out dark grey smoke right now.
Isn't it meant to be white smoke?

Not necessarily. Particulates are invisible anyway. Sounds like they may be burning damp or unseasoned wood.

It's unseasoned alright.
It comes straight out of his van after a day spent at a building site and straight in to his fire that night.

basically get on to Building Control and Environmental Health at your local authority

You need to video him bringing this waste word into the house and the smoke coming from his chimney, keep a diary of when/ how often and put together a time line for env health.

They will investigate. But you need to provide evidence to prompt them into action.

I don't feel comfortable filming him without his consent though, that makes me feel uneasy. He'd see me, anyway!
Is burning wood from a building site illegal?? Does all wood have to be seasoned, or only tree wood?

If it is recycled from building works it may be treated with chemicals which should not be burnt.

You can complain to your council. We’ve complained about our neighbour previously because I’m fed up of not being able to breathe in my own garden. It’s horrendous. It gets into the house and we can’t shift the smell.

They will send a warning letter and your neighbour will ignore it and carry on. If you make a second complaint they will expect you to film the smoke to prove the black smoke lasts over 20 minutes.

We re-complained as they said they would investigate if it continued. What actually happened is they told us to stop sending them evidence (despite that being the instructions) and as the person in charge of looking into it doesn’t live in our county it will take him too long to drive here, sit and watch then drive home so he won’t do it.

So now it’s started again and it’s disgusting thick black smoke hanging over our garden constantly (he burns his rubbish and various damp dodgy wood).

Not unless he's choosing a new Pope 😁

Try

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/anti-social-behaviour-asb-case-review-also-known-as-the-community-trigger

Call the fire Brigade as they will make him put it out and check out what he is burning

My neighbour used to burn painted wood and plastic coated chip board. Idiotic

The only time my log burner makes smoke is when I've just lit it. As soon as it's up to temperature, there is no smoke, and little to no smell. If you stand at the end of the drive, you'd know there was a fire on, but as long as I'm burning properly seasoned / dried timber, and at the right temperature, it doesn't smell like a bonfire.

You shouldn't just burn any is wood, he'll end up with a chimney fire.

They definitely won’t do this.

Say it looks like the chimney is on fire

Sorted