Any one successfully reported neighbours wood burner?

ThisIsWeird

melb said:

my neighbour burns pallets, wood from skips. anything she can get her hands on basically and we are in a clean air zone.  Is this allowed?  There is no smoke visible from the chimney but it smells awful

As FB says.

What does 'awful' mean? Not a nice wood smell? What else - 'acrid'? Makes you gag if you get a whiff outside?

Best evidence in your case, I suspect, will be witnesses. Anyone who visits or smells it, ask them to describe what they are smelling. Record and time every incident.

Bigphil1474

OP, if you report it to your local council, they would normally follow a standard process for complaints under the Environmental Protection Act 1990:-

1. Write to the alleged perpetrator outlining the allegation and advising them accordingly
2. Ask you to keep a diary of any events over (usually) a 4 week period, which you return and they review
3. If the matter is resolved, then case closed
4. If the diary shows evidence of potential offences, they would try and make a site visit (identifying times when they'll likely see an offence, from the diary entries).
5. If they witness an offence, serve an abatement notice on the occupier - basically requiring them to comply with the law
6. If they witness a breach of the abatement notice, they will prosecute the occupier.

Generally, all nuisance cases (in my area at least) are dealt with like this, including noise, odour, light, burning waste etc. Some councils have adopted other legislation, but I think that's mostly around noise. The local council officer might just pop out based on when you say it's happening, as smoke is much easier to deal with than noise for example - it just has to be seen come out of the chimney, whereas noise has to be witnessed in your house. Will always come down to whether someone is available. 

It's worth knowing that any nuisance complaint about your neighbour would appear on a search should you want to sell your house. Don't think it makes a huge difference though. 

FWIW, my brother has a small motorbike garage, and he decided he needed a log burner in there to keep him warm. The smoke was blowing over his garage and straight into the lounge of a nearby Care Home, and I didn't think he was too careful what he burned. I didn't know about it, but one of my colleagues popped out and had a chat and it was sorted. 

Soconfused14

Bigphil1474  Thats really useful information.
For now they seem to be burning more often, probably cos I dared to confront them. But the smoke is less acrid and grey rather than black. It may be that they have stopped burning the awful stuff. Only time will tell. Gonna give them a few more weeks to see if it changes more and may be able to talk to the neighbours partner as they seem a tiny bit more reasonable.
Im not bothered about it being on a search as no intention of moving out.

ThisIsWeird

Photos? Video clips? Chronological record? 
If not, you'll be starting from scratch when/if you decide to act.

I'll repeat - there should be no (or next to no) smoke from a properly functioning wood burner that's burning proper wood.

Will they stop doing this if not challenged? Why should they?! It'll likely become less of any issue as the seasons warm up, but you'll almost certainly have a repeat come next winter.

Soconfused14

Thank you for your advice ThisisWeird. I have many video clips but not actually done a diary.
As I say its become less, so prepared to give it a few more weeks or maybe leave til next winter especially as that gives me more time to resolve face to face. I know I could report but I would like to give them a chance to sort it.
When I spoke to one of them , they kept saying that noone else had said anything and I tried to explain that this was because the wind tends to blow it towards our house. Have really enjoyed last few days and few days to come, where wind has changed directions, and you can see its blowing towards many of their neighbours on the other side.  One of them has already mentioned it to me, so its possible that there will be more than just me complaining to them.
As I said, its worth just waiting and seeing for a while longer.   

ThisIsWeird

SPnomore said:

There is a house not far from me that always reeks when you walk past. They have numerous "chimneys" from the house and outbuildings with foul smelling smoke night and day. Some of the locals think they are growing something funky in the garage. As well as the smoke there is a pungent chemical/perfume smell that also comes out of a huge grow house in the summer. Apparently they have been reported several times but nothing has been done so far.

'Apparently'.

ThisIsWeird

Soconfused14 said:

Thank you for your advice ThisisWeird. I have many video clips but not actually done a diary.
As I say its become less, so prepared to give it a few more weeks or maybe leave til next winter especially as that gives me more time to resolve face to face. I know I could report but I would like to give them a chance to sort it.
When I spoke to one of them , they kept saying that noone else had said anything and I tried to explain that this was because the wind tends to blow it towards our house. Have really enjoyed last few days and few days to come, where wind has changed directions, and you can see its blowing towards many of their neighbours on the other side.  One of them has already mentioned it to me, so its possible that there will be more than just me complaining to them.
As I said, its worth just waiting and seeing for a while longer.   

That's fine, and very decent of you.

Eldi_Dos

In a lot of UK towns the west end is historically considered the posher part, this can in part be accounted  for by the prevailing winds being west or south westerly. These winds would blow smoke and other noxious smells away back to less favoured parts of town.