Garden bonfires - are they legal?!

MrThrifty

Was chatting to a friend today about bonfire night tomorrow and the topic of garden bonfires came up. Does anyone know for sure if these are legal in Cork anytime of the year, if only garden waste is burnt (and nothing like domestic rubbish or plastic etc.)?

Miaireland

To the best of my knowledge you cannot.

Hogzy

Its illegal to burn any sort of waste in Ireland without a permit. Apparently in the summer Cork County Council rent a plane to go searching for burning waste and fine the **** out of people who are caught. Garden waste should be free to get rid of in some refuse sites.

dahamsta

Hogzy wrote: »

Apparently in the summer Cork County Council rent a plane to go searching for burning waste and fine the **** out of people who are caught.

Eh? Where did you hear this exactly?

Hogzy

dahamsta wrote: »

Eh? Where did you hear this exactly?

Word of mouth. Hence why i said "apparently".

It could be spoof for all i know.

dahamsta

Sounds like total horse crap to me.

stephendevlin

I think if your a farmer you can do it on your land but not rubbish

Miaireland

dahamsta wrote: »

Eh? Where did you hear this exactly?

It was on that show on Rte. I think they called it the Enforcers. It was not just burning waste they look out for though.

deRanged

if you have a read of this pdf from the EPA they detail Cork CoCo's use of a helicopter to find illegal car scrapyards in Cork.

If you check page 10 there's a little anecdote of a home owner being fined for burning rubbish in their backyard, though not detected by the helicopter.

I do remember hearing about them using helicopters to detect illegal burning and such, but given the 2k an hour costs of flights, I doubt they do it often, if they even still do it.

Hogzy

dahamsta wrote: »

Sounds like total horse crap to me.

Looks like your horse crap detector might be broken.

dahamsta

The PDF is from 2006, and as was clearly stated in the last post, the chopper and fine were unrelated. Weren't you able to read that far?

(deRanged remembers hearing that they did, but with all due respect to deRanged, who speaks much more credibly, I remember hearing that there's pots of gold at the end of rainbows. Evidence is my god.

Anyway, as they say, if renting planes or helicopters for enforcement in 2011, I'll eat my hat. Apparently. FACT. :rolleyes:)

charlemont

Sure burn it anyway, Just keep your gates locked incase the law appear, And be wide to neighbours that might rat you out.:pac:

deRanged

dahamsta wrote: »

(deRanged remembers hearing that they did, but with all due respect to deRanged, who speaks much more credibly, I remember hearing that there's pots of gold at the end of rainbows. Evidence is my god.

I couldn't agree more.

anyway, leaving the issue of helicopters aside, here is Cork CoCo's take on burning waste in your backyard. While this doesn't specifically mention garden waste, it covers all waste.

The EPA specifically mention garden waste. However, as always with legal advice, it's not exactly cut and dried.

I'd be stunned if Cork CoCo have the funds to have a chopper in the air this year, or last year. I'd be surprised if they have the funds to have people driving in cars looking for illegal burning. Unless, of course, there's EU money specifically for this purpose.

deRanged

and evidence of the use of helicopters, albeit no guarantee that they're still in use this year.

Minutes of Proceedings at Meeting of Cork County Council held in the Council Chamber, County Hall, Cork on 8th February, 2010, Section 3,a wrote:

3. The number of complaints in relation to the disposal of waste by burning has been reducing - this is due to a number of initiatives by the Waste Enforcement Team
a. Helicopter Surveys of the County
i. Burning is visible from a distance in a helicopter
ii. GPS readings are taken
iii. Follow up site visits
b. The regulations in relation to burning are sent out with the advice/warning letters
c. If the evidence is sufficient, prosecutions are initiated as outlined below
i. Prosecutions 2007
1. 1 No prosecutions under Sec 32 of the Waste Management Act
ii. Prosecutions 2008
1. 4 No prosecutions under Sec 32 of the Waste Management Act
iii. Prosecutions 2009
1. 2 No prosecutions under Sec 32 of the Waste Management Act
2. Please note that there are several pending prosecutions, initiated under the new regulations, for disposing of waste by burning in 2009 which have not yet come before the courts.
4. The Air Pollution Act also allows for a civil prosecution to be taken by a member of the public if the smoke or emissions from the burning is seen as a nuisance by neighbours or members of the public.

report on the interwebs here


and with that the bread is baked and I'm out of time to scour minutes of meetings for mentions of helicopters

DanWall

Lots of people burn domestic waste in their fire in the house, how do you detect that?

mossie

Miaireland wrote: »

It was on that show on Rte. I think they called it the Enforcers. It was not just burning waste they look out for though.

At the time I seem to remember them saying Cork Co Co could only afford to hire the helicopter for a few hours monthly. Given the economic situation can they even afford that now?