South Gloucestershire Council

If you live in a smoke control area, you must not cause smoke to come from your chimney. If you want to have a fire in your home, you should use an authorised smokeless fuel. Ordinary bituminous coal and wood are not authorised fuels.

It is an offence for any person or company to obtain or deliver unauthorised fuels to a building within a smoke control area unless they are going to be used in an appliance that is exempt.

There are numerous styles of open grate and glass-fronted fire, cookers and boilers which are tested and approved to burn specific authorised fuels. You can get information on these appliances and fuels from the Solid Fuel Association or the UK ‘Smoke control areas’ website.

The legislation only applies to fires within a building. So you can still have a bonfire outside – providing it does not cause a statutory nuisance.

Smoke control areas

South Gloucestershire’s smoke control area lies within the boundary of the M4, M5 and M32 motorways. It includes:

• Filton
• Patchway
• Stoke Gifford
• Little Stoke
• Bradley Stoke

The following roads in Kingswood are also in a smoke control area;