🚨 EXCLUSIVE: 🚨 Despite over 8,000 complaints recorded, NO local authority with a smoke control area has issued a fine for smoke pollution in the past five years.
My investigation for @TheENDSReport reveals the state of the broken enforcement system
endsreport.com/article/180558…
My investigation for @TheENDSReport reveals the state of the broken enforcement system
endsreport.com/article/180558…
One resident who lives in a Smoke Control Area in the affluent London Borough of Kingston Upon Thames told me that smoke pollution has "ruined her life".
Yet she told me that when she raised the concerns with the council "they were very dismissive".
Yet she told me that when she raised the concerns with the council "they were very dismissive".
“It took nearly two weeks for them to tell the neighbours to stop burning and by this time I had been rushed to hospital with a severe asthma attack – their attitude has been appalling", she said.
It’s a bleak picture. However, an air quality officer, speaking to ENDS on condition of anonymity, says the current legislation makes it “impossible” for local authorities to enforce any breaches to the rules.
“To make an enforcement an officer needs to physically witness the smoke coming from the chimney, but the problem with that is a lot of smoke happens at night when people are at home. Yet without this evidence, on a technicality, the enforcement mechanism doesn’t work," they said
- @CommonsPACAC Dame @Meg_HillierMP tells ENDS that the underlying issue is a lack of transparency
“The Clean Air Act was a major piece of legislation, but it seems like we’ve taken our eye off the ball, and as a result the public is in the dark as well as in the smoke"
“The Clean Air Act was a major piece of legislation, but it seems like we’ve taken our eye off the ball, and as a result the public is in the dark as well as in the smoke"
For Simon Birkett, founder of campaign group @CleanAirLondon the rules around“are weak and feeble”.
“Why is the government so afraid of taking action to protect people’s health? It’s been nearly 70 years since the Great Smog, it’s pathetic.”
“Why is the government so afraid of taking action to protect people’s health? It’s been nearly 70 years since the Great Smog, it’s pathetic.”
He added that The Green Party’s Baroness @GreenJennyJones Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill, which today is at the Committee stage of the House of Lords could speed up action on wood smoke overnight by enshrining the human right to clean air precisely and explicitly in UK law.
- @MumsForLungs @UK100_ @EllaRobertaFdn #woodsmoke #woodpollution #smokepollution #AirPollution #woodburning
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