Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Would you be in favour of banning fireworks (other than scheduled displays?)

208 replies

FlippidyFlop · 23/10/2020 14:11

YABU - people should be allowed to let them off any time of the year in their own gardens etc...

YANBU - there is no need to let fireworks off at random times of the year and they should be kept to scheduled displays so people know when to expect them.

OP posts:
PebblesAndBamBam · 24/10/2020 19:33

@Steamfan

For all those looking for a petition to sign - petition.parliament.uk/petitions/319891

Please sign it, and write to your MP

It says on there that they ran an enquiry in 2019 and responded in 2020 to say no. I doubt they'll look at it again any time soon, sadly.
FenellaMaxwell · 24/10/2020 19:39

I would love to see them banned. I have a nervous dog, and a 3 year old with SEN who are terrified whenever they get set off. Twats round here seem to set them off nightly from October to January.

Steamfan · 24/10/2020 19:58

Pebbles there's a debate in the Commons on 4th Nov and here's some more info - fabfireworkcampaign.org/

ImEatingVeryHealthilyOhYes · 24/10/2020 20:06

I’m surprised they’re available for anyone to buy. It’s horribly upsetting for some animals and children. The government’s reasons on that petition link don’t persuade me.

On a personal level I’m a very light sleeper (ex-insomniac) and they wake me up even with earplugs. I’ve known them to happen at totally random times like 1am. Madness

BurMaMa2 · 24/10/2020 20:07

My animals and I live in a remote part of our County, so only see them in the distance. The cat watches them with interest. The dogs are more interested in their dinner or mine. The horse is more into his hay net than watching pretty shapes in the sky. As I can't hear them, I don't mind them now.
When my dog, cat, and I lived in a fairly rough area of London I had the radio on loud each day and night, and kept the curtains closed. The dog came to work with me, and the cat slept under the duvet. My horse was stabled out of town and looked after very carefully.

Greektome · 24/10/2020 20:14

I love fireworks - big displays, small events, the odd firework in your own garden.
What I don't like is the constant limiting of what we are allowed to do - in case of causing minor noise, for example.
If you're going to limit it, then I think they should be allowed from the weekend before to the weekend after 5th November, plus at New Year. But I would prefer no limits.

SpeedofaSloth · 24/10/2020 20:15

I really like to go to organised displays, we have never had them at home.

lynsey91 · 25/10/2020 08:22

@Greektome

I love fireworks - big displays, small events, the odd firework in your own garden. What I don't like is the constant limiting of what we are allowed to do - in case of causing minor noise, for example. If you're going to limit it, then I think they should be allowed from the weekend before to the weekend after 5th November, plus at New Year. But I would prefer no limits.
It is certainly not "minor noise" in an awful lot of the country.

When the really loud ones which sound like bombs going off and shake your windows (when it is not even an old house) go off night after night after night from 5pm or earlier until, sometimes, 1am it is awful.

When I see how upset and distressed some of my friends' dogs get I wonder how much it affects wildlife, cattle etc. My friend has to use tranquilisers on her dog and hates doing it for weeks at a time. They calm her but they don't stop all the shaking, panting, drooling etc. I have heard of dogs having heart attacks because of fireworks

OscarRIP · 25/10/2020 08:30

@FlippidyFlop

YABU - people should be allowed to let them off any time of the year in their own gardens etc...

YANBU - there is no need to let fireworks off at random times of the year and they should be kept to scheduled displays so people know when to expect them.

Scheduled displays have been cancelled where I live and supermarkets have been selling them for individuals since last week.

They started going off in our neighbourhood last night. I expect this to happen regularly now until the end of lockdown because it will be a way of celebrating any event if people can't go out together.

Nanny0gg · 25/10/2020 08:32

@DDiva

I love fireworks. I live in Sussex so can attend many organised events in sep/oct/nov in a 'normal' year. I also fully support private purchases.
Why? They scare pets and wildlife. Why do you need private purchases too?
Nanny0gg · 25/10/2020 08:33

@Greektome

I love fireworks - big displays, small events, the odd firework in your own garden. What I don't like is the constant limiting of what we are allowed to do - in case of causing minor noise, for example. If you're going to limit it, then I think they should be allowed from the weekend before to the weekend after 5th November, plus at New Year. But I would prefer no limits.
Why can't we limit things that cause harm?
OscarRIP · 25/10/2020 08:34

Forgot to say YANBU to suggest this, but I sympathise with people wanting to celebrate a birthday, who can't. My (grown up) children's birthdays (and ours too) are coming up over next month, yes we are all scorpios Shock and as we live far away in different cities in the UK we won't see them to celebrate. A zoom call will have to do Sad.

Unicorners · 25/10/2020 08:37

I'm ok with private purchases to a point. We sometimes do our own, but only on the 5th of November when the displays are on anyway.

I don't think it is acceptable to be setting them off on random dates throughout the year when people are not prepared for it.

Tiredmummy2014 · 25/10/2020 08:37

I love fireworks but they should only used for events, in large open spaces (ie, not in city centres), and not for personal use.

Pancakeorcrepe · 25/10/2020 08:40

In my mind it is long overdue to ban these wretched things for private use. Organised displays only, and regulated.
I don’t understand how people can justify causing upset, upheaval, environmental damage, danger to people and animals, all for the sake of something that it totally unnecessary. Only very selfish people could justify that, and dare I say stupid people. Everyone who sets up fireworks in their gardens is always full of excuses: oh it’s only a few, my neighbours don’t mind, this that and the other. Completely forgetting that if everyone thinks like that, we really are in a mess. It’s getting out of control with fireworks being set off at random nights between September up to end of January, any time from the afternoon until the early hours, weeknights, weekends, nothing is sacred anymore. Stop being selfish, people! Have a bit of awareness!

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 25/10/2020 08:56

I wouldn’t want back garden displays banned, but IMO the big, mega-bang types should be strictly limited to public displays. And even then the noisier types should be banned.

There are some very big houses near here, where the presumably loaded owners let off lots of the mega-noisy type for quite a while before and after 5th Nov.

WitchesNStuff · 25/10/2020 09:19

Last night an elderly man near me was walking his 2 dogs when some men in a van let some fireworks off over his head. The dogs were on a lead but as it scared them all so much they ran into the road and one was killed. That is why they should not be sold to the public.

Not to mention the ridiculous number of injuries, the distress to animals, general disruption when it goes from mid October to NYE. If people know of local displays in advance (weekend either side of 5th Nov plus on the actual night) people can be prepared. Last year someone I know's 18 week old puppy got so scared it ran out of the house as a firework went off (in october) as the owner answered the door and was run over, another local persons very young pup had a heart attack. Its really unnecessary.

I have cats and they are not too bad with it luckily.

WitchesNStuff · 25/10/2020 09:22

If you could only purchase noise limiting ones for home displays it would be better but you can't regulate who buys them and they can be so dangerous in the wrong hands.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 25/10/2020 18:14

Yesssssss. They should start selling only the quiet ones. she growls while thinking of the dickhead setting them off at 1am last night.

Tbh, anything can be really dangerous in wrong hands.

Devilesko · 25/10/2020 18:16

No, I like them and they don't bother me tbh.
Grown up with them, they've always been around.

hiredandsqueak · 25/10/2020 18:16

@amusedbush

Some twat has been setting them off every night for a week here and my poor dog's a wreck. Nobody needs fireworks in their back garden.
Same here every night for a week now. They have been letting them off for the past hour today. Poor dog is trembling.
Littlecaf · 25/10/2020 18:18

I love fireworks! We live in Sussex where there are loads of Bonfire Societies, so you can’t move for displays around the 5th. I’m also fine with them in people’s gardens. They aren’t sold widely all year (I think it’s a licensing thing?) so a few nights around the 5th is fine with me.

Devilesko · 25/10/2020 18:18

Plus it makes up for the shit the cats leave in our garden, scare them off a bit.

Thesuzle · 25/10/2020 18:19

I’m in favour of a complete ban on sales to the public, having just done my regular countryside walk this morning and collected a spent firework stuck upright in a field margin.
Plus ban Chinese lanterns, balloons of any kind

SchrodingersImmigrant · 25/10/2020 18:38

Wait. Chinese lanterns aren't banned yet?!

Swipe left for the next trending thread