Report a smoke problem

You should be able to enjoy your home and garden without being affected by smoke from a neighbour or a nearby business. By law we can only deal with smoke that is defined in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 as being a 'statutory nuisance'. This means the smoke must be:

excessive
unreasonable
considerably affecting you and your enjoyment of your home or garden

Most neighbours will be considerate if you explain that smoke is causing a problem, but if it keeps happening you can report it to us. Read more about resolving disputes with neighbours.

You should always report dark smoke from a business to us, as we'll need to investigate and take action to find out if they're burning waste illegally.

Smoke from homes

The whole of Barnsley is a smoke control area to improve air quality and reduce pollution from burning coal, oil or wood as fuel. This means that everyone with a heating appliance must make sure that they:

only burn an authorised smokeless fuel; or
have an exempt appliance capable of burning fuel without emitting smoke (operated in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions)

It's an offence to not comply with these requirements and could lead to a fine of up to £1000. Find out about using wood burning stoves and open fires.

Smoke from gardens

Being in a smoke control area doesn't mean that people can't have a garden bonfire or a barbecue, but the smoke shouldn't be causing a nuisance to neighbours. We won't investigate reports of smoke from garden fires or barbecues unless it's excessive and happening frequently.

If your neighbour is having a bonfire or barbecue, they should try to locate it in a place that will avoid any smoke blowing onto neighbouring properties. If they're having a garden fire they should avoid:

burning wet waste, as this produces more smoke
having the fire on still or damp days when smoke won't disperse very well
burning rubber, foam, plastic or anything containing paint
burning anything outside when the air pollution level is high

Dark smoke

Dark smoke is usually produced by burning materials like plastic or rubber, cables and some furniture. It's an offence under the Clean Air Act for industrial or trade premises to emit dark smoke from burning waste.

We'll always investigate reports of dark smoke regardless of how many times it's happened. We can take court action leading to a criminal conviction and a fine of up to £20,000 for the business.

How to report smoke

Unless it's an emergency, use our online form below to report a smoke problem to us. In the form you need to tell us:

where the smoke is coming from
how often it happens
what affect it has on you
any action you've taken to deal with it
your name and contact details in case we need to contact you (we won't share these with the person or business you're reporting)

It would be helpful if you could also upload some evidence of the problem in your form, either a document, photo or video. You can use our smoke diary to keep a record of the details of the smoke.

Report smoke

What happens next

We'll use the information in your form, as well as guidance in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Clean Air Act 1993 to decide if we can investigate your report. We may ask you to fill in a smoke diary or send us some other evidence if you haven't already uploaded it with your report.

If we decide to investigate the smoke we'll usually write to the person or business and ask them to resolve the problem before taking any further action. We may also visit the area at the time you've told us the smoke occurs.

In most cases we'll need to witness the smoke before we can take any formal action. We can then either serve an abatement notice on the person or business emitting the smoke or take legal action. If you've reported smoke from a home or garden, we may ask you to provide a witness statement and attend court. We'll tell you what's involved in this and support you through the process. We won't ask you for a witness statement or to attend court if you've reported smoke from a business.