The Executive Director of Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report that asked the Committee to revoke all the existing Smoke Control Areas (SCA) that were currently covering a large part of the Borough, and to replace them with a new single Order declaring the whole of the Borough a smoke control area.  A map of the existing areas was attached to the report at Appendix 1.

The report explained that SCAs had first been introduced under the Clean Air Act 1956 to restrict coal burning following bad smog events and SCAs were still relevant today due to the rise in popularity of wood burning stoves.  The current Clean Air Act 1993 had recently been updated by the Environment Act 2021 to provide a simpler regime for smoke control enforcement, allowing a possible decriminalised regime with a simplified structure for issuing penalty notices.  There were currently 21 SCAs within the Borough that had been declared since 1959.  However, these only covered around 62% of the Borough. 

The report stated that the benefit of the proposal was to reduce the risk of harmful emissions of uncontrolled burning of solid fuels in open fireplaces in the 38% of Reading that was currently not covered by SCAs.  The proposal would also ensure consistency and minimize confusion in relation to the controls in place for the burning of solid fuels across the Borough and to raise awareness of the health impacts of burning solid fuel on air pollution.  Before the new SCA could be declared a statutory consultation process would need to be completed and a public awareness campaign would also be carried out alongside this process to ensure that residents were aware of any implications there might be on them.

Resolved –

(1)        That the existing Smoke Control Orders be revoked and replaced with a single Smoke Control Order across the whole Borough, subject to the outcome of consultations and confirmation by the Secretary of State;

(2)        That subject to the outcome of the public consultation, the Assistant Director of Planning, Transport and Public Protection, in consultation with the Lead Councillor and the Assistant Director for Legal and Democratic Services be granted authority to exercise the delegation confirming the order.