Clean Air Act 1993

The Clean Air Act (CAA) is a piece of national legislation that imposes control on a number of different areas of atmospheric pollution.

The following summarises the most important parts of the legislation:

Section 1

The emission of dark smoke may not be emitted from the chimney of any building.

Section 2

Dark smoke may not be emitted from any industrial or trade premises. This covers smoke emitted other than from a chimney and covers bonfires etc. from such premises. This includes dark smoke emitted from demolition or building sites.

The darker the smoke, the more polluting it tends to be. Typically, dark smoke is caused by burning oil or synthetic materials e.g. cables, plastic, foam, furniture, mattresses, polystyrene etc.

Dark smoke is defined according to a British Standard using a Ringelmann chart. The chart has five shades of grey with 0 being clear and 5 being black. When viewed at a distance the squares merge and smoke is considered 'dark' if it has a shade of 2 or darker.

Section 4

No furnace may be installed at any premises unless the Council has been formally notified. There are exemptions to this requirement.

Section 14

No furnace may be used in a building which:

• burns pulverised fuel or
• burns solid fuel at a rate of more than 45.4 kilograms per hour or
• burns liquid or gaseous fuel at a rate greater than 366.4 kilowatts

unless the the height of the chimney serving the furnace has been approved by the Council.

Part III of the Act deals with Smoke Control Areas (SCA) - Sometimes wrongly known as smokeless zones

Apart from Thames Ditton Island none of Elmbridge is a Smoke Control Area.

Thames Ditton Island used to lie within the area administered by Richmond Council and was designated by them as a SCA as part of the process of designating the whole of Richmond Council area as a SCA. Administrative boundary changes transferred the Island from Richmond to Elmbridge and the designation as a SCA remains. The practical effect of this is that only certain approved fuels may be burnt in the SCA. As open fires are less and less used this restriction has less practical effect.

For more information about Smoke Control Areas see |DEFRA website