Warwick District Council wants views on widening smoke control beyond the four town centres. Six options, fines of £175 to £300, and comments close 5 October.

If you have a wood burner or an open fire in Leamington, the rules that apply to it may be about to change. Warwick District Council is asking residents and businesses which parts of the district its smoke control rules should cover. Five of the six options on the table would take in more homes than are covered today.

The consultation opened on Monday 24 August and closes on Monday 5 October.

Where the rules apply now

Smoke Control Orders currently cover only the town centres of Kenilworth, Leamington, Whitnash and Warwick. The council says those orders were made under older legislation and do not reflect the standards in the government’s latest Clean Air Strategy.

If you live outside a town centre, nothing applies to your chimney at the moment. That is what the consultation could change.

The six options

The council has set out six ways forward:

  • Option 1, district-wide. Every building in Warwick district is included.
  • Option 2, no change. Regulations stay in the four town centres only.
  • Option 3, main urban focus. Extended to the whole of the four towns, as drawn by the Local Plan urban boundaries.
  • Option 4, urban and village growth. All four towns plus villages earmarked for growth in the Local Plan.
  • Option 5, urban, village and brownfields. Option 4 plus redeveloped industrial sites.
  • Option 6, district-wide excluding homes without gas. District-wide, but homes with no connection to the gas grid are left out.

There is a procedural catch worth knowing. The council says that to bring in any of the expansion or district-wide options, it would first have to revoke all the existing orders. It would then replace them with a single new one, so that the old and new records do not overlap.

What each smoke control option would cover, Warwick district Table showing which parts of Warwick district each of the council's six smoke control options would cover. Option 1 district-wide covers all five categories. Option 2, no change, covers the four town centres only. Option 3 covers town centres and the rest of the four towns. Option 4 adds villages set for growth. Option 5 adds redeveloped industrial sites. Option 6 covers everywhere, excluding homes with no gas connection. What each smoke control option would cover Warwick District Council consultation, open to Monday 5 October 2026. Filled squares show where the rules would apply. Four town centres Rest of the four towns Villages set for growth Redeveloped industrial sites Everywhere else Option 1 District-wide Option 2 No change (today's rules) Option 3 Main urban focus Option 4 Urban and village growth Option 5 Urban, village and brownfields Option 6 District-wide, excluding homes with no gas connection* * Option 6 applies district-wide but leaves out homes with no connection to the gas grid. Option 2 is the position today: only the town centres of Kenilworth, Leamington, Whitnash and Warwick are covered. Source: Warwick District Council, Smoke Control Order consultation Graphic by The Leamington Post
The six options in the Warwick District Council smoke control consultation, and what each would cover. Source: Warwick District Council.

What a smoke control area actually means

It is not a ban on solid fuel. The council is explicit about that. What it does is set legal limits on what comes out of your chimney.

  • You can burn authorised smokeless fuels, such as anthracite or specific low-smoke briquettes.
  • You can burn non-authorised fuels, including seasoned wood and wood pellets, only in a DEFRA-exempt appliance designed to burn fuel cleanly.
  • Even with an approved stove, you must use only the fuels the manufacturer recommends for it.

DEFRA publishes the lists of authorised fuels and exempt appliances for England, so you can check a specific stove or fuel before you buy.

The penalties

Inside a smoke control area, a chimney releasing substantial smoke can attract a civil penalty of £175 to £300. The council states that its primary goal is to give advice and support rather than to issue fines.

Selling or buying unauthorised fuel for use in a smoke control area is also an offence, unless it is for an exempt appliance. Retailers face penalties of up to £1,000.

Why the council says it is doing this

Air pollution “remains the largest environmental risk to public health”, the council says, “and the Council is committed to doing everything we can to improve local air quality”. That is Councillor Jim Sinnott, Portfolio Holder for Safer, Healthier and Active Communities. He added that it was important to hear from residents and businesses, “to ensure we achieve the right balance between meeting local needs with our health and environmental responsibilities”.

The council cites DEFRA’s estimate that 29,000 to 43,000 deaths a year in the UK are linked to air pollution. Its case rests on particulate matter, specifically PM2.5, which is small enough to pass into the lungs and bloodstream. Domestic solid fuel burning is a major source of it.

The Leamington air quality picture

Smoke control is about smoke and soot. The district’s Air Quality Management Areas are a separate designation, and they were declared over nitrogen dioxide, which mostly comes from traffic. The two do not measure the same thing.

They are worth reading together, though, because the AQMA record shows where the council’s attention has been. Four of the district’s five AQMAs have now been revoked:

  • Kenilworth (Warwick Road), Kenilworth (New Street) and Warwick (Coventry Road), revoked by Cabinet on 15 March 2024 after nitrogen dioxide met national standards for four consecutive years
  • Warwick (Variation) Order No. 2, revoked by Cabinet on 22 July 2026 after six consecutive years of meeting the standard

That leaves one active AQMA in the whole district, and it is in Leamington. It sits in South Town and is centred on High Street, Clemens Street and Bath Street. Nitrogen dioxide there has met national standards for the past three years. The council says it will keep monitoring and running measures under its Air Quality Action Plan before it asks DEFRA to approve a revocation.

What it means for you

How much of this affects you depends entirely on where you live:

  • In one of the four town centres. You are already covered. Every option, including no change, keeps you covered.
  • Elsewhere in Leamington, Warwick, Kenilworth or Whitnash. Five of the six options bring you in. Only Option 2, no change, leaves you out.
  • In a village earmarked for growth in the Local Plan. Options 1, 4, 5 and 6 bring you in.
  • In any other village or rural property. Only the two district-wide options, 1 and 6, reach you, and Option 6 leaves you out if your home has no gas connection.

Three practical points:

  1. Check your appliance before winter. If a wider order is made, a stove that is not DEFRA-exempt limits you to authorised smokeless fuels.
  2. Nothing changes yet. No new order exists. The council is collecting views first, then putting them to councillors.
  3. Off the gas grid changes the argument. Option 6 exists specifically to protect households that rely on solid fuel because there is no gas connection. If that is you, it is worth saying so in your response.

The villages earmarked for growth are set by the Local Plan, which is also driving the large housing schemes now coming forward across the district. We track those on our Leamington planning news page.

How to respond

  • Online, through the council’s Smoke Control Orders consultation form
  • By email to pollution@warwickdc.gov.uk, which is also the address for requesting a paper copy
  • By phone on 01926 456741
  • By post to Environmental Protection, The Town Hall, Parade, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 4AT

The council says all feedback received during the consultation period will be collated and put to councillors to inform the final decision.

Warwick District Council also sets your council tax bands and runs bin collections.