Topic: Bonfires on allotments

[Borlotti]

I thought the Council said bonfires were only allowed October until May.  But I have lost my (rule) Green Book.  I have a load of mares tail, etc to burn but will wait, hope it is not too wet.  Have suggested a bonfire night, in the afternoon, as we are too old to stay up too late on 5 November, but everything may be too wet to burn.  Then the neighbours and Council cannot complain.  What are the rules where you are??  We are in London so it can cause a problem with local houses with washing out and football on the playing fields.  I think we can get fined a lot of money.  Only asking as I told a newcomer about their bonfire, not being nasty but didn't want them to get a fine, bad enough with parking fines, although I have a bike, but my son couldn't park last night and didn't want to spoil a nice night with the grandchildren if he got a fine for parking on the pavement outside my house.

[Amazin]

My allotment's in LB Barnet. Our fire rules go something like this:

April - June:  Absolutely no bonfires.
July - September: Bonfires allowed on the first Wednesday of the month.
October: Bonfires allowed after 4pm.
November - March: Bonfires allowed.

That's on the message board in our trading hut. However, a sign on the site gate says: Absolutely no bonfires allowed at any time between April and September. Ho hum...

I'm stockpiling for 1st October - anyone got a birthday they'd like a beacon for?

 ;D

[lavenderlux]

On our field we have now completely banned bonfires;  we have houses along one side and the smoke from fires on the allotments caused lots of problems to them - and anyone else on the field.  We have a skip twice a year for non compostable items, a field shredder where plot holders can bring items such as fruit bush prunings to be shredded (and take the resultant material back and add to their compost heaps), a metal recycling scheme and we ask people to take diseased material home and put into their council brown wheelie bins or take to the tip themselves - or they can bag it and wait for the skips.   For larger fruit prunings, eg apple tree branches, which are too thick to shred, we have a log pile for wildlife.
Previous to the complete ban, we banned fires from April to October.

[kt.]

Summer months our fire timings are 1800-2000hr.  Winter months timings are 1600-1800hr.  We are permitted to burn allotment waste such as weeds etc but not rotten wood and other rubbish from the allotment.

[stevie77]

We can have bonfires
 
April - Oct   after 6pm as long as the winds blowing in the right direction. ;D 
we are surrounded on three sides so it has to be blowing toward the empty side. Lots of us have windsocks  :D on our plots so everyone can see which way the wind is blowing.

Nov - Mar   any time but again as long as the wind is blowing toward the empty side of the site.

It can be frustrating waiting till 6pm, but as we have houses on 2 sides and a playpark and school on the other, we have to have some rules that suit most people.  :)
We still get complaints especially when someone is having a bbq late on a summers evening. as the saying goes you cant please everyone.
steve

[cornykev]

We must have the same set of rules Borlotti, I think it just says respect your neighbours when having a fire, if theres no wind or its blowing away from your neighbours its OK.  ;D ;D ;D

[grotbag]

on our site we are allowed 1 fire a year

[kt.]

on our site we are allowed 1 fire a year

Unless you are only allowed to burn on one particular date of the year - How do they know you have had "the one"?  Surely some people have more.... their first bonfire on more than one occasion 8)

[Suzanne]

No restrictions at all on our sites.

[Borlotti]

Have looked up my new agreement with the Council and bonfires should be October until April and then not to cause a nuisance, have to make sure the wind does not blow towards houses.  Also we are not allowed BBQs or sheds or greenhouses, but that is OK cause we have lock ups that the Council provides and toilets (they flush, good in an emergency but not too clean).  Living just outside London in a built up area is different from living in the country, I envy you but if I move away would not see the grandchildren so often and they rely on me quite a bit for emergency babysitting etc.  My dream is a cottage by the sea and an enormous garden, but at present enjoying the allotment.

[TheEssexYorkshireman]

Our allotments are opposite the local hospital and they complained years ago about the smoke throughout the year and fires were almost banned. The compromise is that we are only allowed to have bonfires on the 5th November.

[Trevor_D]

We are independent and can make our own rules, but we still have to take our neighbours into account. (We have a main road on one side, houses on two, but open fields on the fourth.)

Our rules are no bonfires in June, July & August. (We have just allowed a one-off exemption to this, as we've had sudden & disastrous tomato blight, but no-one has taken us up on it.) And we have to look at wind direction; no fires unattended and all extinguished before you leave. (Usual stuff, I assume.)

[Bean_Queen]

We get lots of complaints about bonfires on our site - even when we're not having them.

Hence, I researched the law (that would be with a capital L) on bonfires.

There is no law against bonfires.  End of.


Just be considerate.  Don't let it make loads of smoke, don't do it when the wind is blowing, don't light one if washing is out on the line.

What I do, is wait until someone lights a BBQ, then I quickly light my bonfire   ;D

[texas01]

The only rule on our site is to make sure the fire is out before you leave. Fortunately there are no buildings nearby  :)  just the A14  ???

[asbean]

On one site we have to have fires only in designated areas, and only in the winter.  On the other there are no restrictions, the smoke usually drifts into the prison, so no complaints there, and there is a lady nearby who ALWAYS has washing on her line, but she's mates with the pyromaniac so that's OK.  She brings him mugs of tea as he's quite old.  It's a sort of communal bonfire, we all pile the stuff up on the end of my orchard (not near the trees) and he burns it when he's there for the day.

[hopalong]

My allotment's in LB Barnet. Our fire rules go something like this:

April - June:  Absolutely no bonfires.
July - September: Bonfires allowed on the first Wednesday of the month.
October: Bonfires allowed after 4pm.
November - March: Bonfires allowed.

That's on the message board in our trading hut. However, a sign on the site gate says: Absolutely no bonfires allowed at any time between April and September. Ho hum...

I'm stockpiling for 1st October - anyone got a birthday they'd like a beacon for?

 ;D

My site is in LB Barnet too and we are allowed bonfires July-September (first Wednesday).  That's what the Barnet  bye-laws say.  I'd query the notice on your allotment shed if I were ypu.

[lewic]

God what a load of jobsworths there are..

Our rules state no "smoky or annoying" bonfires, which is open to interpretation. I've got a garden incinerator (bin with holes in) which seems to pipe the smoke upwards better and burns stuff quickly.

Am a bit concerned as new flats are being built right next to my plot, and you can bet some killjoy yuppie will complain. Hopefully I will have nuked the plot by then and can just dump the odd weeds in their bins instead! ;D

[Amazin]

My site is in LB Barnet too and we are allowed bonfires July-September (first Wednesday).  That's what the Barnet  bye-laws say.  I'd query the notice on your allotment shed if I were ypu.

Hopalong, I think it's to do with the proximity of the residential area, plus we've had a few plotters having industrial sized bonfires on a regular basis when they think nobody's looking. I know if someone was doing that near my house I'd be none too pleased, especially when they're burning ridiculous amounts of all types of waste , including tyres and carpets which absolutely stink (the same ones who kept using hosepipes during the ban and got us all reported to the Council). I think our particular rules have been drawn up by agreement with our neighbours.

Mind you, the "can we can't we" situation as regards September has got me a bit flummoxed as I have loads of woody material all chopped up  in manageable piles ready to go.

On a related matter, if I collect those pesky bindweed roots and keep them dry, will they be destroyed by burning? The idea of waiting for them to rot down gets me reaching for the tablets.

 ;D

PS. -  I'm at the Hospital Fields site. Where are you?