England’s hotspots for complaints about smoke pollution from wood burners were revealed today after 5,608 objections were made to councils in just one year.
Local authorities handled about 100 complaints a week from illegal burning of wood in smoke-control areas between September 2023 and August 2024.
But just four fines of around £300 each were issued, according to data compiled by parents’ campaign group Mums for Lungs from Freedom of Information requests.
n Birmingham, there were 783 complaints made to the councils about domestic fires in a year – 25 of which were linked to house chimneys, but officials did not issue a single enforcement letter or carry out an inspection relating to these.
Manchester City Council had 213 complaints, but issued just seven warning letters, while Cheshire East had 141 and did nothing. Durham received 236 complaints and sent out 32 letters, while Dudley had 234 complaints and issued 13 letters.
By contrast, Bromley Council in South East London issued 275 enforcement letters in response to the same number of complaints and carried out 135 inspections.
