Dear Editor
I am concerned about the number of industrial size stainless steel chimnies sprouting up on houses around the town. For people living nearby, or walking past, they are not only an unpleasant nuisance, but also a danger to health. The smoke and fumes they produce can cause lung problems, including COPD and lung cancer, and even if you go indoors they can still filter in.
I thought the ‘Clean Air Acts’, from the 1950s onwards, were meant to do away with dangerous smoke and fumes, so I was flabbergasted to discover (from the DCC website) that Aycliffe is not in a ‘Smoke Control Area’, which means these chimneys are permitted.
However, if the fumes are causing a nuisance, usually because the chimney has been wrongly installed, or the wrong fuel is used, the Environmental Health Dept.of DCC can act.
If anyone else is concerned about this, the Environmental Health Department can be contacted by phone, letter or via the DCC website. They will ask you to keep a diary of dates and times of the nuisance.
Meanwhile, shouldn’t DCC be thinking again about Aycliffe’s ‘Smoke Control Area’ status?
(Name and Address supplied)