Smoke Control Areas
Under the Clean Air Act The London Borough of Richmond has declared the whole of the borough as a smoke control area. It is an offence to emit smoke from a chimney of a building, from a furnace or from any fixed boiler if located in a designated smoke control area.
Since all properties within the London Borough of Richmond are within the Smoke Control Area (SCA), you will therefore be guilty committing an offence if you allow smoke emissions from a chimney.
There are two ways to prevent smoke being emitted from a chimney, you must either use:
- an authorised fuel: this is a fuel approved by DEFRA under the SCA (Authorised Fuel) Regulations. These fuels have passed tests to confirm that they are capable of burning in an open fireplace without producing smoke,
- exempt appliances: burning fuel on a fireplace exempted by the SCA (Exempt Fireplace) Regulations. These have passed tests approved by DEFRA to confirm that they are capable of burning an unauthorised or inherently smoky solid fuel without emitting smoke.
For further consumer advice on solid fuel burning, contact the Solid Fuel Association