Bonfires can cause distress to neighbours and even kill people who have breathing difficulties.

We've had enough... should we really allow a few selfish people stop us opening our windows or using our gardens when we want to? - It is time the Council acted!

Parish Council issues request for bonfire restraint (which is naturally ignored by the usual people)!

Three days is two too many!

We local residents who have breathing difficulties do appreciate it when our neighbours wait until a turn in the weather to light up, for the last couple of weeks we have been in a drought with a hosepipe ban imposed, and when we heard the lawnmowers we knew that it wouldn't be long before the smoke started. What, wait for the clippings to dry up before setting fire to them, that would be too considerate.

The only problem was they decided to light their bonfire (of green grass cuttings remember) in a shower. The shower turned into rain, and the rain into a tempest, but still every time there was a pause in the wet they relit their smouldering pile (with plastic covered cardboard from the smell). Last night the air was filled with debris and bits of paper ash which hang in the air like snow.

It's now Thursday afternoon and the sun has come out, my wife tried to dry some washing but an hour later the smoke and dreadful smell returned! The children are at home for 6 weeks and with the return of sunshine might have liked to get away from the TV, only they would have to breathe carcinogenic smoke, the neighbours certainly don't care about that sort of thing!

If they can legislate for an Olympic games then surely inconsiderate bonfires shouldn't be impossible to control. Please, please, let's get this bonfire menace sorted.

Another disgusted resident

Hello

At last we have some good weather-a chance to sit outdoors and enjoy a drink and a meal; maybe hang some washing on the line or just enjoy the fresh air. BUT NO!! Here we are again with the selfish, inconsiderate villagers who think they can light up, pollute the air and let it all blow away.

This evening the air over Hamsland was full of large black lumps emanating from a big burn up over the way, gently floating down over my table and chairs and forcing an early departure indoors. Only a few days ago I had to suffer a day long smoulder and garden full of smoke from another source, forcing me to use a clothes dryer on a lovely warm day!! To say I am incensed is an understatement, but how do we stop them? Naming and shaming on the website will probably have limited effect as not all residents have access to the internet. I will be writing to the Parish Council and Mid Sussex Council about bonfires because I think it is really time legislation was introduced to stop them. Why should the bad, inconsiderate behaviour of some residents cause so much misery and inconvenience to so many others. I felt physically sick the other day when the window was open, as the foul smell and smoke was drifting indoors.

It is all very well saying you have to expect this in the country but NO! There is no reason on earth why we should have to endure this perennial problem, especially over a 12 hour period or more. It is time to act and I am determined to start the ball rolling to improve the environment of our village once and for all. Watch this space!

A disgusted resident

There IS a way to do it properly.

So how DO you get rid of garden rubbish? Simply burn it, but try doing it this way!

First choose a day when there is a wind to blow all the smoke away but there isn't a gale blowing (we'd have thought that every villager could understand that one!). Second, make sure that the bonfire is dry and that it is hot enough. Third ONLY burn refuse that is safe. Do NOT burn plastic or coated cardboard. Do NOT burn furniture or chipboard. These produce carcinogenic chemicals and YOU are likely to be nearest to the conflagration! (Unless you are a villager who lights up and then hides indoors with your double glazing closed, In that case we don't think you'll be reading this anyway, and you deserve all that you get!).

Start by building a fire of wood, get it roaring hot. Then, and only then add your rubbish. This will have the effect of heating up the rubbish so that it burns completely and makes the smoke rise high up into the air. Keep adding rubbish as the fire burns through.

Never put a newspaper under a pile of wet leaves and leave it smoulder. This should be illegal in our opinion! Do it this way and you will dispose of the rubbish cleanly and safely as well as keeping your neighbours happy!

WE ARE NOT SURE IF WE SHOULD RECOMMEND THIS BUT WE HAVE BEEN ASSURED THAT AS A LAST MEASURE IF YOU THINK THAT YOUR NEIGHBOUR'S FIRE IS DANGEROUS OR IS UNATTENDED YOU ARE AT LIBERTY TO CALL OUT THE FIRE BRIGADE. THIS IS NOT ABUSE AND IS EVEN SUGGESTED. CHECK THE WSFB WEB SITE!
A FIRE ENGINE AT THE DOOR WILL CERTAINLY MAKE E'M THINK NEXT TIME!

13 April 2004. We arrive home from work on the first warm evening of the year. The kids ask if they can have a kick about in the garden. "Certainly we say", but when we open the back door we find that the same person has lit a bonfire, smoke hanging everywhere as there is no wind, so back to the computer!
Do you, local resident, think that it's time we named and shamed these inconsiderate neighbours?
Do you think that it would do any good?
(We honestly doubt it and think that legislation is the only answer).
Your comments, please to the usual address.

If you are reading this later in the year then this is the week of the highest temperatures this year, and perhaps (at the time of writing) the highest hereabouts for many millennia! Perhaps then you can understand the ire of the four residents who have written to us in the last week complaining about their neighbours lighting bonfires during this heat wave. Unfortunately of the four emails received only one has agreed (so far) to have their letter published. It is self explanatory.

Today will be the hottest day of the year so far. For the last two hours my house and garden, and no doubt those of my neighbours in Church Lane/ Leighton Road, have been engulfed in the acrid smoke coming from a neighbour's bonfire. We cannot open any windows. We cannot sit outside. I have a 12 month old baby.

Surely something can be done to shame these people into behaving with consideration for others?

(Signed)

Perhaps now is the time to raise the matter with your Parish Councillor.
You can find them listed here, we leave it up to you.

Any further views from either side are welcome and will be published here if permission is granted.
Please email to webmaster-at-horstedkeynes.com . (Change -at- to an @ symbol)

While this exceptionally hot spell of weather continues may we urge ALL residents to NOT light up their bonfires. Whilst many villagers have heeded our request some others seem to think that it is all right to light their monster in the evening. As those of us who sleep with our windows open will tell you the breeze often drops to nothing at night, so the smoke just hangs in the air until dawn. Villagers who have breathing problems often find the night time far worse than the day and this is the time of the highest number of hospital admissions for breathing problems. Please think of others.

By the way did you know that you can now be fined up to £5000 for burning plastic on your bonfire? It has always been an offence to pollute the air but councils now have the power to prosecute people who burn anything other than "combustible garden and household waste" OR whose fires emit "dark smoke". Some cardboard boxes have a plastic coating which lets off cyanide when burnt! Even if you aren't worried about your neighbours health, your plants won't appreciate a dose of poison.

You are entitled to call out the fire brigade if you feel that a bonfire is dangerous. Thank you from all of us who need to breathe clean air

There have been no updates to this page since last year when we managed to get the subject of inconsiderate bonfire smoke mentioned in the Mid Sussex Times as well as on Meridian TV. Unfortunately with the return of warm weather we again find our enjoyment of outside marred by a few ignorant or just plain selfish villagers who think nothing of lighting up their bonfires with a gallon of petrol and some plastic bags!

Once again we ask you to remember those of us who have problems with their breathing and for whom the smell of bonfire smoke means us having to run indoors with the windows tight shut followed by a trip to the bathroom cabinet to find their inhaler. The ironic thing is we have been told that some people retired here as they thought that the air would be fresher than in town!

Yes we do appreciate that you have to get rid of your rubbish but what we do ask is that you wait until there is a wind to blow the smoke away before starting a bonfire. If you just can't wait until then at least wait until the late evening before lighting up, however many of us enjoy sleeping with their bedroom windows open, and to be honest why should you force us to close them?

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