Wakefords has written this article in the style of a Surrey Live post, so that Surrey Live can follow it. We apologise to everyone else.
You won’t believe what this Surrey news site did next
A Surrey news website has been warned it could face fines “running into the thousands” if it does not stop doing one thing, insiders say. The one thing is putting “£5,000” in a headline about wood burners and hoping nobody reads past it.
Sources close to the situation, who asked not to be named because they are us, said the offence, officially classified as “chronic clickbait”, has led to a surge in complaints across the county, with residents reporting a 100% increase in eye rolling and one man in Ripley pulling something.
A Defra spokesperson could not be reached for comment, mainly because Defra has no idea this “story” exists.
What we know so far
- Surrey Live posted: “Wood burner owners could face up to £5,000 fine under new rules.”
- There are no new rules. There is a consultation, which is the government word for “we’ve asked”.
- Their own article admits, eventually, that stoves already installed in homes would not be affected. That is the whole story. It’s in there somewhere, after the third suggestion of something else to click on.
- Nobody is coming for your stove. We checked. We would know. It is literally our job.
The £5,000 fine, explained by people who fit stoves for a living
Here is what the rules actually say today, straight from GOV.UK, a website that has never once told you what to look for in the Aldi middle aisle:
- Chimney smoking in a smoke control area: £175 to £300. Not in a smoke control area? Not applicable. Carry on.
- Buying unauthorised fuel for a stove that isn’t Defra approved: up to £1,000. Also smoke control areas only.
- Dry, seasoned logs in a modern Ecodesign, Defra approved stove: nothing. Not a fine, not a warning, not a strongly worded letter. That’s nearly every stove we’ve fitted in the last ten years.
So where does £5,000 come from? A different rule altogether. It is what a court can hand someone who has been served a formal notice by the council to stop causing a smoke nuisance and has carried on regardless, presumably while burning a sofa. To get there you would need to ignore your neighbours, ignore the council, ignore a formal notice and then lose in court. Nobody is getting it for lighting their stove on a Tuesday.
The numbers that didn’t fit in the headline
How often do councils actually fine anyone? Don’t take our word for it. Take the word of Mums for Lungs, a campaign group who would very much like councils to fine more stove owners, and who sent Freedom of Information requests to every council in England with a smoke control area. Their findings, published in January 2024:
- Complaints about wood burning since January 2022: over 10,600
- Fines issued: three
- Prosecutions: one
Three. In the whole of England. In nearly two years. There are roughly 1.9 million households in the UK with a wood burner. Your village is statistically more likely to be named “best place to live in Surrey, not Guildford or Woking” than you are to be fined for your stove.
How to protect your family from clickbait
- Read past the headline. Bring snacks.
- If the big number is in the headline but not in the first paragraph, it isn’t a fact. It’s bait.
- If the “new rules” don’t exist yet, they are not rules. They are a consultation, and you can reply to it.
- Ask someone who does this for a living. We are down the road in Send, and we have been sat here since 1984.
A message to Surrey Live
In 2020 we wrote a post called Domestic wood burning stoves are NOT being banned. It is still true. Feel free to read it before the next headline. We’ll leave the lights on.
Let’s make their clickbait worth something
Since that post got a lot of people worried over nothing, we’d like it to do some good. Mention this post when you book a stove installation with us and we’ll throw in a free pre-installation chimney sweep, on the house. Surrey Live, the offer is open to you as well. It might help clear the air.
Sometimes clickbait is good for something after all. Get in touch, or come and see us in the showroom in Send. Bring the headline. We’ll frame it.
More from our blog
Domestic wood burning stoves are NOT being banned (2020, and still true)