To ask that fireworks are no longer available except for organised gatherings

[HurryUpSpringDays]

After another NY being woken by neighbours' fireworks, AIBU?
They are dangerous (every year someone is injured on Nov 5) and very anti social.

If they aren't banned for personal use, they could be made noiseless only.

I know people will think I'm a party pooper and come along with 'It's only one night of the year' (it's not actually as some neighbours let them off on birthdays and other personal anniversaries.)

People just don't seem to appreciate that not everyone is up at midnight, some people are ill and don't want to be woken up, (in my own family there is someone on treatment for Stage 4 cancer, others with Covid) some people have pets and babies who're disturbed, etc.

I'd be more prepared to sacrifice the ones who let noisy dogs off all year round.

Quietly, apart from a bit of muffled chanting.

Well, quite. Say what you like about the Druids but they kept themselves to themselves unless someone needed to be sacrificed. Excellent neighbours, extremely considerate.

I remember someone I knew buying fireworks a couple of years before the millennium to save for new years eve 1999/2000 because there so much talk of them being banned

They were bad on the old littering front though. All those broken bloody pots all over the place.

All of that information is on Google.

If you feel as strongly as you say, you can start a petition in minutes to add to all the other ones.

They’re illegal where I live but that doesn’t seem to stop anyone from buying them and letting them off.

Personally I’m not bothered by them, but I definitely feel for those who struggle with the noise and would have no trouble with the law being enforced.

I agree with this. I think banning them would only lead to people buying dodgy ones on the black market.

This is such a weird post. I mean, is it OK if I leave a big steaming dog poo on your doorstep etc and then defend the action by saying “Well, there is horror, cruelty and death in the world, it’s all just part of life”?

That argument works both ways, though; you could argue that by allowing private fireworks, we’re opening the way for more and more ever-noisier displays and ever more dangerous pyrotechnics. Judging by some of the posts here, it looks like that is indeed happening in some areas.

Totally agree with this

It's not though is it? And some people are extremely irresponsible. One of our neighbours has fireworks obviously unsuitable for a suburban garden. They make our windows shake and leave mess all over the everyone's else's garden.
I love public firework displays but that is where they should stay.

Or a third camp - 'meh, who cares.'

Can I live where you do please? We have 2 weeks straight of it around bonfire night and again all over christmas and new year. 2 nights a year would be bliss. Last year our next door neighbours had them and they literally sounded like we were under fire, people say blah blah blah but it really is no
fun with 2 cats and a baby

How do you explode them to explode in the sky without making a bang???

Sounds like they need to be better restricted in the UK, as in literally only x number of days a year (bonfire night, new year's eve, diwali, whatever the holidays are that use them for celebration) and anyone setting fireworks off on other days without a professional license (applied for separately for each occasion) should be severely fined.
In my country normal people can only set off fireworks on new year's eve, between 6pm and 2am. Only other time I see fireworks are professional ones on a particular weekend to celebrate end of boating season. So only one night where you need to worry about pets and children unless you live next to docks in which case two nights. But that doesn't solve the issue of idiots letting them off dangerously, better policing of reports of dangerous behaviour perhaps with firm consequences.

And more quiet fireworks for sale, I could only find two kinds of quiet fireworks when I was buying some (so I only bought those)

Easy. Just get a nice lightbulb that identifies as a firework and shine it around a bit.

A little sanctimonious. What is wrong with people having fun? Our neighbours across the road have fireworks. I like watching them. We used to have several dogs - we put music on for them and gave them a big meal on November 5th, and Diwali, and Eid, so they would be dozy - this is general advice for these occasions. Why does everything have to be safe and silent, so boring and so pointless, since the accident that happens is never one on the risk assessment.

Good luck with trying that in Sussex.

There must be more than 40 different "bonfire societies" in Sussex, who each hold their own displays and events between mid-September and the end of November. They also have firework displays at social events at other times of year. It's even a tradition to let off large fireworks at the wake following the funerals of bonfire members, and people have them at weddings.

In any of the towns where there are large, active societies, people quickly become acclimatised. I don't notice them any more.

Very glad I do not live in your country, which seems to think people need policing all the time. The UK allows everything not forbidden - that is, if it's not against the law it is allowed. Fireworks on my birthday are not against the law, though I am supposed to stop them by 11pm, and that is how I like it to be. We should have more holidays with more fireworks, the more sparkly and excitingly noisy the better.

Fireworks on my birthday are not against the law, though I am supposed to stop them by 11pm, and that is how I like it to be. We should have more holidays with more fireworks, the more sparkly and excitingly noisy the better

I think there needs to be a public advertising campaign on how dangerous to health noise pollution actually is.

And that's disregarding the air pollution aspects.

Most of us manage to celebrate our birthdays just fine without annoying everyone around us.

Unless you were up to be burned alive in the Wicker Man, or have your penis and scrotum removed with a golden sickle or have your entrails nailed to a tree whilst you were made to run round it. The Romans found the Druids a bit much to take and they went in for some horrendous punishments and arena events. Not nice neighbours! But quiet? Probably.

I was going to say that the designated days in Sussex would need to be pretty much a third of the year!

Although the bonfire societies would mainly come under the “organised display” category, I think?

Fireworks are traditionally used to clear the air. That is why they are let off. We have bonfires, too. Are you wanting to ban those?

Exactly, bonfire societies would be fine. As well as the really noisy ones, it's people letting them off in their gardens at 3am, or throwing them at other people in the street, that's the issue.