City of Yarra seeks ban on new wood heaters because of smoke

Yarra Council wants tougher planning laws so they can ban wood heaters due to asthma risk, but it’s being slammed for being out of touch with ratepayer concerns.

City of Yarra says smoke from wood heaters contributes to high rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses in urban places. Picture: Kris Reichl

An inner-city council wants planning laws beefed up so that new wood heaters can be banned in built-up areas.

City of Yarra, which includes Fitzroy, Collingwood and Richmond, says smoke from the heaters contributes to high rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses in urban places.

But in a submission set to go to the Municipal Association of Victoria state council in June, the council said the current planning process had no guidelines or EPA rules for applications to install new heaters.

“A council faced with an application in a built-up area for a new wood heater has no tool with which to refuse that application, despite the evidence of health impacts on surrounding residences, and its impacts on human health,” it said in an item for a council meeting next Tuesday.

Yarra wants the MAV to lobby the state government to introduce tougher guidelines around new heaters “in built up metropolitan areas through the planning process, including the ability to not allow them”.

City of Yarra wants the MAV to lobby the state government to introduce tougher guidelines around new heaters in built-up areas.

Communications director at the Institute of Public Affairs Evan Mulholland, said it was even more evidence that the City of Yarra was completely out of touch with ratepayer concerns.

“Inner-city elites would have suburban households freeze through winter, by banning wood heaters, to satisfy their own virtue,” he said.

“Net zero is a marketing slogan that quickly falls apart when Australians realise it means banning everything from gas cookers, barbecues, and everything fundamental to the Australian way of life.”

The EPA website says that households are required to reduce smoke from wood heaters, especially in colder months, as excess smoke can be a nuisance to neighbours and affect their health.

“Your local council has powers to enforce this. You can report wood smoke pollution to your local council,” the EPA said.

In 2016, Maroondah Council, which includes Ringwood and Croydon, banned outdoor fires for heating but reversed the policy months later after local outrage.

It now allows outdoor fires provided the device is designed for outdoor heating or cooking, and doesn’t upset neighbours.