If you do wish to have a garden bonfire you must ensure that:

• the smoke does not cause a nuisance to your neighbour
• the smoke does not cause a danger to road traffic

if it does, you could be breaking the law. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 allows the Council to deal with statutory nuisance caused by smoke affecting residents within their property or garden. We discourage the burning of waste and ask people to reuse, recycle or compost their garden waste. 

Things you can do to prevent smoke nuisance from your bonfire

The easiest way is not to have a bonfire at all but if you do have a bonfire, here are some tips to help prevent problems:

• Site the bonfire as far away from housing and roads as possible and have it when the wind is blowing away from houses/roads.
• Make sure that the material is dry enough to allow it to be burned quickly and with the minimum amount of smoke.
• Soft vegetable waste and grass cuttings etc which are difficult to dry should be recycled, composted or buried.
• Never burn household rubbish, oily rags, plastic, rubber, paint, varnish, foam or similar man made products as these are likely to produce pungent smoke.
• Inform your neighbours and agree an appropriate time of day when they won’t be affected.
• Make sure your neighbours don’t have washing hanging out to dry, are trying to enjoy their garden or have their house windows open.
• Avoid evenings and weekends when people want to enjoy their garden.
• Keep a fire extinguisher or water supply handy in case the fire gets out of hand.

Alternatives to bonfires provided by us

You can either take the waste to your local Council recycling centre. Contact Wakefield Council and arrange a bulky refuse collection or consider hiring a skip. The Council do provide these at a competitive price and details can be found on our waste and recycling webpages.