Tell us about the impacts of wood burning

We partnered with other local authorities to highlight the impact fireplaces and wood burning stoves have on London’s toxic air and now we want to hear from you.

The London Wood Burning Project (LWBP) is as Defra-funded (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) campaign that brings together London councils and calls on residents with real coal fires or wood burning appliances to check what they are burning to help reduce dangerous air pollution in the borough. 

The LWBP aims to create awareness of the dangers of wood burning to peoples’ health and the environment. In order to assess the success the project, we are asking residents to take part in the survey to help us learn more about behaviours around wood burning.

Wood burning stoves and coal fires a significant source of the pollutant ‘PM2.5’ – a form of pollution that can cause respiratory and cardiovascular illness and to combat this, for many years Richmond has been a ‘Smoke Control Area’. This means that you cannot emit grey smoke from a chimney and should either burn an authorised fuel or use an ‘exempt appliance’, for example a Defra-approved stove. 

Your thoughts on the impact of the campaign will be key in helping the project investigate the health effects of wood burning inside and outside the home and help make Richmond upon Thames a nice place to be for all residents.

Take part in the survey