Topic: Should I complain?

[Trevor_D]

Gypsy, you must have some form of tenancy agreement, or terms & conditions? Ours are quite strict on bonfires and state that they must not "cause inconvenience, disturbance, nuisance or offence to any other    allotment holder, the general public – including local residents – or vehicles on    neighbouring roads." They are also banned during the summer and must not be left unattended.

We front a main road and have houses along one of our boundaries. Our unwritten rule is that if anyone complains, the bonfire goes out immediately (and muggins deals with the problem!).

But our rules also forbid anyone to bring anything onto the site that is not for cultivation purposes. I think this is a fairly common one, so check your rules. And, yes, you do need a licence to carry potentially toxic waste on the public highway.

Don't you have a committee, or even a site secretary? That's what they are there for, to deal with problems on the site and between plot-holders. You need someone who is one step removed from the situation, so that it doesn't become personal.

[tonybloke]

the bit about importing stuff for burning, this requires ( by law) a, waste carriers licence, b, waste treatment licence!!

by law, you are only allowed to burn the 'arisings from within the curtillage'

Yes, that's what I understand too.  I said "If the polystyrene - and nasty stuff it is to burn - if it was brought onto site to burn then that would be an offence under the Environmental Protection Act (I think) and you should complain to the Environment Agency."  Isn't that right?

yes, sorry Simon, reading too many posts, got mixed 'em up.

the environment agency do the prosecution, but I think local councils sort out licences  for transport and waste treatment (burning is treating waste, from a legal point of view)

[daitheplant]

And only if it doesn`t cause a nuisance.

[Unwashed]

No Dai, you can be fined if your local authority has previously declared your burning to be a statutory nuisance, but in general other than that it's a civil matter for you to sue for nuisance and a single smokey fire isn't enough, because nuisance has a special meaning which is quite a bit more than annoyance.

[Robert_Brenchley]

One or two fires wouldn't constitute nuisance any more than an odd bee sting does. It has to be a continuing nuisance. It's extremely difficult to convince the courts that a hive constitutes a nuisance, and I imagine fires would be just as hard.

[gypsy]

I have just been looking at the allotment agreement, which states "You must not burn anything on your allotment except for garden waste from your allotment which cannot be composted". The allotments are run by the City Council, who also issue Bonfire guidelines, including "If you continually cause a nuisance with burning you may be prosecuted by Environmental Health." It also states "Never leave your fire unattended. Never leave the allotment sire without ensuring thst the fire has been properly extinguished".

All of this sounds good, but in practice it is difficult to enforce. I may take photos if the fires continue while I am there.

Thanks to all who have pondered over this, I am hoping for a smoke free weekend at the allotment.

[elvis2003]

hopefully he has burnt everything he thought he needed too.This is a difficult situation as surely he knew he was doing a wrong thing,so no wonder he was so defensive.fingers crossed for you that this is over with and you remain on a friendly basis

[tonybloke]

if the fire is left burning unattended, you are within your rights to extinguish it ;)

[Trevor_D]

All of this sounds good, but in practice it is difficult to enforce. I may take photos if the fires continue while I am there.

It's only difficult if you don't have a strong Committee in charge. We have no problems. Someone must be in charge on your site - the ball's in their court.

[Unwashed]

It's only difficult if you don't have a strong Committee in charge. We have no problems. Someone must be in charge on your site - the ball's in their court.

You've hit the nail on the head Trevor.

[mahonia]

If you have been following my thread 'Unlawful eviction from my plot' you would read that we have similar problems on our site.

Business people rent plots and use them to dump waste and they regularly have fires burning all sorts of non vegetation waste. Asbestos has been dumped and burned on fires.

We have houses on two sides of the site and two roads and complaints about smoke are often.

But we have no site manager and a weak committee, so the burning goes on.

[Digeroo]

I would suggest contacting the fire brigade.  Some years ago we had a building site opposite our house and they were always burning things.  In the end one Saturday we had a childrens party and a couple of hours before the whole house and garden were covered in thick black smoke but there was no one left on site.  Sp we called the fire brigade.  It luckily  ;D :-X  flared up just before they arrived.  That was the last fire on site ever. 

Fire officer was not pleased they had left it burning or what was being burned.  He came round and spoke to the site manager.  The site manager said I was making his life very difficult.  Shame!!