Labour MP Says "Unneighbourly" Use Of Fireworks Is "Hugely Detrimental" To Vulnerable People And Pets
Bonfire Night is coming up on Wednesday 5 November (Alamy)
5 min read
Labour MP Sarah Owen has said the use of noisy fireworks is becoming “unneighbourly” as she leads a cross-party effort to restrict their sale to the public.
The MP for Luton North has introduced a Private Members' Bill to ban the sale of the loudest fireworks to the public, and ensure fireworks can only be purchased from licensed shops. If the bill gets passed, the public sale of fireworks would be limited to fireworks with noise levels of 90 decibels or under, which is about as loud as a lawnmower.
With Bonfire Night approaching on Tuesday, Owen said she did not want to “stop people’s celebrations”, but that fireworks being set off throughout the year and in the early hours of the morning was having a “hugely detrimental effect” on people and animals.
Owen described how people with post-traumatic stress disorder, including those who have served in the armed forces, children with special educational needs, and families with young children and pets have been particularly affected by frequent loud fireworks in her constituency and across the UK.
“It's got to the point where it almost feels unneighbourly,” she told PoliticsHome.
“It's just not the way we should be doing things.”
In the run-up to Bonfire Night, supermarkets and high street shops can sell fireworks to the public, which Owen described as “commercial grade explosives”. The Luton MP’s bill would limit the sale of the larger, noisier fireworks for use by public displays only, and would also limit the online sale of fireworks to the public.
“If you look at some of the ones online, these boxes of fireworks are not named because they are something beautiful,” Owen said.
“They’re named ‘rampage’ or ‘blaster’... they're made in such a way that they are designed to cause offence rather than joy.”
However, Owen added that many people will buy extremely loud fireworks without knowing that there could be quieter alternatives that would avoid causing disturbance.
“A bit of public knowledge wouldn't go amiss,” she said.
“At the moment, the current limit is 120 decibels, which is the same as a rock concert.”
Owen suggested that there is a wider problem of people forgetting to consider how their behaviour in public affects others – including those who listen to their phones without earphones on public transport.
“Just that level of a lack of self awareness or consideration for other people around them,” she said.
“They may have a genuine reason for that, but it's about courtesy. It’s about manners. It's about understanding the impacts that your behaviour and what you're doing has on other people.”
The current law is that fireworks cannot be set off between 11pm and 7am, except for special occasions such as Bonfire Night, New Year’s Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year.
However, many people ignore these limits and Owen believes more could be done to police this behaviour – though she admitted that having police patrol the streets for this purpose would be “a tough one” due to a shortage of officers.
Sarah Owen was first elected as MP for Luton North in 2019 (Alamy)
Bedfordshire Police, which covers Owen’s constituency, put out a statement this week saying they were “gearing up for one of its busiest periods of the year” during Halloween, Bonfire Night, and Diwali, as they usually see an increase in anti-social behaviour associated with these events.
Community Policing Inspector Mohammed Nasar said he respected that many people enjoy these events “safely and considerately” but that some would use them as a “an excuse for callous and careless activity including criminal damage and illegal use of fireworks”.
The force has recently launched ‘Operation Starbar’, a collaborative scheme with Luton Council to reduce instances of illegal and anti-social firework use.
Owen described how the council is going to work with the app Love Clean Streets, where users take a photo of an issue and add GPS coordinates and a brief description, which are then automatically sent to the council's administrators. The council can then try to identify the source of the disturbance and issue a cease and abate order or escalate with the police.
“Even without this legislation, we are trying to make progress,” the MP said.
“We're not just waiting for the law.”
Owen already introduced a Misuse of Fireworks Bill in 2021 which was not taken up by the last government, but she is “hopeful” this one will pass with more cross-party support. Tory MP Simon Hoare is among those supporting the bill, due to concerns around the impact of fireworks on wildlife and farm animals such as horses, while Labour MPs Andrew Pakes and Jessica Morden are co-sponsoring it.
Owen told PoliticsHome she had faced a “barrage of abuse” from some people in the “big fireworks lobby”, but said she would remain persistent in trying to get the law changed.
“This isn't something new,” Owen said.
“There has been a problem identified for over a decade now. I'm not the first MP that's tried to change the law.”
Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle was previously among a number of MPs who supported a Private Member’s Bill to ban the public sale of large fireworks all the way back in 2003.
Owen does not have any plans of her own to celebrate Bonfire Night, but said that when she was a teenager she went to the famous celebrations in the town of Lewes, East Sussex: “It was absolutely terrifying. There were a lot of fireworks just being thrown into the crowd… it was not what I would have wanted.”
“I love looking at beautiful displays, but they don't just have to be fireworks,” she said.
“If we look at the different technology that's out there right now, the beautiful drone displays are just completely mind boggling, they are so awe-inspiring, in the same way that fireworks would have been to people that first invented fireworks.
“Businesses around the world have diversified into drones, into low-noise technology, and I would say that probably it's time for British businesses on that front to look at it as well.”
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