Air pollution can harm your health and is linked to lung conditions, heart disease and cancer. Everyone can be affected by air pollution, but children, older people and those with heart and lung conditions are especially at risk.
City of York Council is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of the local community. Improving local air quality is one way in which we are working to achieve this priority.
We have consulted with York residents and businesses on an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) containing measures to improve local air quality; this was approved in July 2024.
In addition to reducing pollution from transport, our Air Quality Action Plan has a role to play in reducing pollution from burning solid fuels, such as wood. Wood burning has increased in popularity in recent years for aesthetic as well as practical and economic reasons but is one of the most polluting methods of home heating.
Burning of wood contributes to a type of pollution called fine particulate matter (PM2.5) both inside and outside the home. Around a third of PM2.5 emissions in York are caused by burning wood for heating.
Emissions of PM2.5 present in smoke are particularly harmful to health as their size means they can get deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream to be transported around the body.
The majority of residential areas within York’s outer ring road, as well as all of Haxby and Wigginton, are already included within a Smoke Control Area (SCA). This means there are restrictions on the types of fuels that can be burned and on the emission of smoke from a chimney attached to a building.
This consultation relates to proposals to expand the existing Smoke Control Area to cover the whole of York. This will not ban solid fuel burning but will require all residents and businesses to take responsibility for the fuel they burn so as to minimise air pollution and protect health.