Gedling Borough Council has begun a consultation on proposals to expand its crackdown on smoke in the borough as part of air quality improvement measures.
The Clean Air Act 1993 gives local authorities the power to create a ‘smoke control order’ with restrictions on the emission of smoke from chimneys attached to residential buildings.
Gedling borough currently has a smoke control order in place covering most of the urban area as well as Calverton, Newstead and Bestwood villages.
It allows officers to issue a financial penalty of between £175 and £300 when they witness the emission of smoke from a chimney, regardless of the appliance being used or the type of fuel burned.
But the current order doesn’t cover the villages of Ravenshead, Linby, Papplewick, Lambley, Woodborough, Burton Joyce and Stoke Bardolph and the surrounding countryside.
The council is now considering revoking the existing smoke control orders and replacing them with a single smoke control order, which will cover the entire borough.
During a previous consultation back in autumn 2023 concerns were raised by residents who have wood as their primary source of heating or, those that supplement their heating with a wood burning stove.
The council have now said there needs to be a balance between the environmental and health benefits of the proposal – cutting particulate emissions – and any potential harm caused by the economic impacts for residents.
A spokesman said: “Whilst the Clean Air Act and DEFRA guidance indicates that any visible smoke from a domestic chimney in a smoke control area would be a breach of the legislation there is clearly a need for a fair and proportionate approach to both parties involved.”
The council have said that submitted comments during the first consultation will be taken into account but residents are free to comment again
Residents can take part in the consultation, which closes on September 27 via https://gedlingmaps.gedling.gov.uk/portal/apps/storymaps/stories/5c38be57f121420eb6008ec0962beeb4
Taking fire of the pensioners now are we? How the hell are we to keep warm under Labour?!
the same way you kept warm under the corrupt Tories… by using your final salary pensions, golden handshakes and maybe thinking about selling your family house you bought for a tenner back in the 70’s and down sizing so a new struggling family can get on the property ladder?! or not buying a brand new EV SUV every other year like a lot of your ‘pension age’ cohort….
Ooher…I sense a lot of jealousy here. Crikey,sounds like we have as far left as you can get. Read the Morning Star do you? Red flag in your back yard. And what’s your middle name then….Lenin? What about former mine workers, they all have final salary pensions. And that’s me. I didn’t buy my house for a tenner either, I had a mortgage for a townhouse at 18, then a semi, then a detached as my family grew. Downsize so one of your Labour long term benefit spongers can have it? Why, because they had ten kids for benefits instead of working? Sounds like you’re smoking some of that strange stuff your wonderful benefits brigade cultivate. I’m glad my property looks down on a spongers council house, I can sneer at them as I waft away the smell of their wacky backy they smoke every day paid for by my taxes from my final salary pension.