Ross Clark Ross Clark

In defence of the wood burner fuel ban

Open the papers this morning and you would think the government had just announced plans to slaughter the first-born. The cause of the outrage? The environment secretary has just said that the sale of coal and damp logs for burning in domestic properties is to be banned from next year. Apparently it is an attack on people who live in the countryside, and on the Tories’ new-found voters in the north of England – whom some Conservatives in the south still no doubt think keep coal in their baths. Maybe there are still a few coal-burners in the likes of Bolsover – although the business of that particular town was for many years producing Coalite, a smokeless fuel which it appears will not fall foul of the ban. Far more at risk of being inconvenienced will be middle-class Londoners with log-burners in their country cottages, and who have long been in the habit of sourcing fuel from some guy down the pub.

In which case I don’t think it will cause them too much inconvenience to buy some properly-seasoned, kiln-dried logs in future. Dried logs are not going to be banned, and will allow people to carry on using their wood burning-stoves – while avoiding smoking-out their neighbours. I live in the country and I can tell you, you don’t know how lucky you are to live in a smokeless zone. You don’t have to put up with clouds of acrid smoke from wood burners, open fires and Agas. First, a confession. I know how polluting it is to burn unseasoned wood because I’ve burned enough if it myself. Living with an open fire and damp logs is like smoking 80 Woodbines a day. How much fresher our living room is since we stopped burning wood altogether and fell back on our pretty clean-by-comparison oil-fired boilers.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in