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Bonfires

Tidying up your garden and thinking of a bonfire to get rid of your rubbish or holding a Bonfire Night party?

Before you light your bonfire

  • Warn your neighbours beforehand. They are much less likely to complain if you light the bonfire at a time least likely to affect your neighbours - e.g. not on a warm day when people will be in their garden.
  • Make sure your bonfire is at least 18 metres (60ft) away from houses, trees, hedges, fences or sheds.
  • Only clean dry timber should be burned. Green waste such as Conifer branches and leaves produce lots of harmful smoke
  • Before lighting the fire, check its construction carefully to make sure that it is stable, and that there are no hedgehogs animals inside.
  • Make one person responsible for the bonfire, and allow only that person and designated helpers into the bonfire area.
  • Bonfires should be no more than 3 metres in height.  There should be a suitable barrier around the bonfire to keep spectators 5 meters away.
  • You could be fined if you light a bonfire that allows smoke to drift across a road and become a danger to traffic.

Once alight

  • Use domestic firelighters to light your bonfire.
  • Keep some buckets of water or ideally a working hosepipe nearby.
  • Keep children and pets away from the bonfire.
  • Once the bonfire has died down, spray the embers with water to stop it reigniting.

Don't

  • Burn
    • green waste
    • aerosols
    • batteries
    • bottles
    • foam-filled furniture
    • tins of paint
    • tyres
  • Use
    • petrol
    • paraffin
    • diesel
    • or other flammable liquids to light your bonfire.

Recycle your garden waste

All districts have kerbside green waste collections or you could take it to your local Waste Recycling Centre.