Horrid burning of stuff in neighouring front garden yesterday and today

[annoyednow]

Ok, here we go again. Saga of neighbouring house. Nobody lives there. There are builders renovating it and they dumped a lot of crap in front garden. It contained skirting, floorboards and various stuff such as plastic bits and rubble. They started bonfire yesterday in front garden. I was out but husband said it started when he was leaving around 8am. It was finished when I came home at 2pm but I was blown away by smell when I opened my door to front porch. Fumes must have been trapped there. When I was leaving at 7.30am this morning, fire was going again and my and son had to go through stink. I rang the environmental dep't at the council but the guy who answered the phone said he's pass it on but there is no time limit on fires and they really have to see them in the act of putting stuff on. Also fumes must be black or toxic.

Problem is it is a heap of rubble stuff burning now. And how am I going to ascertain if the fumes are toxic. Can you burn anything in your front garden.

Builders said to my husband 'this is a building site'. We live next door. Is there anything I can do?

I thought the rule was that you cannot have bonfires before 7pm!
They fire must not be black smoke ie toxic from foam, plastic etc
I also understood bonfires had to be natural ie trees grass hedges wood etc!
I may be wrong but in my road we all adhere to the 7pm curfew!

bonfire times depend on local byelaws. In some places it is "allowed after dusk" and you can try to get the police to enforce the byelaw.

the black or toxic fumes would be a Nuisance which is not time-dependant.

If the are claiming it is a work site you could try the HSE or Environmental Protection I assume if it is building site they can dispose of "trade waste" in this way , I don't think. Maybe avoiding landfill tax there.

When property developers were constantly burning rubbish in a building near to us I started getting worried. I reckoned - probably completely erroneously - that they were burning the stuff that was expensive to get rid of (i.e. asbestos), and that my children were being put at risk.... Yes, I probably was paranoid.

But we phoned up the local Council, who sent someone round. She spoke to them, and told them to stop the burning. When she spoke to us later she told us that her clothes absolutely reeked from the few minutes she'd been near the fire, and she certainly felt it could be a health hazard. She told us to call her if they started burning stuff again. Which to do them justice, they never did.