Smoke Control Areas

Part 3 of the Clean Air Act 1993 allows the local authority to declare ‘smoke control areas’ in order to improve air quality. In these areas it is an offence for the occupier of a building to allow smoke emission from a chimney unless it is produced by an ‘authorised fuel’, although it is recognised that there may be times when certain of these fuels may cause periods of light smoke emission. It should be noted that coal, oil and wood are not authorised fuels.

In Burton on Trent, almost the whole town is declared a smoke control area (please refer to the map above). When complaints of this nature are received officers will attempt to witness the nuisance, where this is not possible the ‘Statutory Nuisance’ procedure is followed to gain the necessary evidence.

However, there are certain fireplaces exempt from these restrictions, please contact the Pollution Team for further information, or visit http://smokecontrol.defra.gov.uk where a full list of authorised fuels and exempted fireplaces can be found.

Please check the links at the left hand side of the page for further information, or click here to return to the Pollution homepage.