Anyone who wants to burn garden or agricultural waste, such as prunings, leaves, dried grass etc, needs to obtain a licence, which is free of charge.
While the days of paying for a licence to have a bonfire are long gone, burning garden and agricultural waste without a licence can prove very costly as the fines are heavy.
The majority of forest fires here in Spain are started by someone burning waste negligently so the authorities have tightened up rules on bonfires to try and safeguard the countryside and mountains from the devastating fires which rage every year.
So how do you obtain a licence to burn?
First of all you need to go to the SEF office in Gran Via (opposite the Gran Via Cafeteria) and make an appointment for the «Ventanilla Unica».
The documents you need to take with you to your appointment are: your full address, including the «parcela» and «poligono» if you live in the countryside.
You will be asked to show the exact spot on your catastral where you intend to burn .You can find your catastral on the Internet by using your catastral number. The webpage will show the boundaries and different fields (parcelas) of your property or you may already have a paper copy with your «escritura» (deeds).
You will be asked to confirm that the site where you intend to burn is 400 metres from the «monte» (wild countryside and hills).
Normally licences are granted for a month and state exactly when you can burn legally, that is the days and times.
Licences are normally granted from October to May but due to the drought, which means the countryside around Calasparra resembles a tinderbox, it is likely the ban on burning may be brought forward this year. So our advice is if you want to burn apply for your licence as soon as possible.
Editors Note
Nexonr would like to thank our reader who brought this matter to our attention, One of the roles of this webpage is to keep our readers informed of matters that affect their daily lives and this issue is clearly one of them. Big thankyou.
