Council calls for Chinese lantern ban

Big bangs and burning barns blamed

East Devon District Council is set to write to the Government to call for them to ban the sale of Chinese Lanterns.

Councillors on Wednesday night unanimously passed a motion that would also see them urge them to pass legislation limiting the noise level of fireworks sold to the public.

And they recommended that the cabinet adapt their drone policy to prohibit the release of lanterns and balloon from EDDC property and land and the release of any firework (above 90db) from EDDC land.

Cllr Mike Allen, putting forward his motion, said: “No-one has a problem with the average firework display but they have become increasingly noisy and anyone who has a pet realises that too many loud bangs make their pet nervous and frequent loud fireworks do create a problem.

“We simply asks that any public firework displays are notified to the council, are advertised so people can take appropriate measures, and to encourage local suppliers to have quieter fireworks. I ask the council consider approving this and make one step forward for human-kind and animal-kind.”

Cllr David Key, who seconded the motion, added: “As a livestock keeper, these bangs are a lot louder than they used to be. The companies should be approached to reduce the sound noise of the fireworks.”

He added that Chinese Lanterns should be banned and told the tale of one coming down in Dorset landing on a farm and burning it down.

Cllr Philip Skinner added: “The lanterns go off into the air and there is no control over where they go and where they land, and they could land anywhere.”

The council unanimously agreed to request organisers of all public firework displays within East Devon to advertise them in advance of the event, allowing residents to take precautions for their animals and vulnerable people, to write to the UK Government urging them to introduce legislation to limit the maximum noise level of fireworks to 90 decibels for those sold to the public for private displays and encourage local suppliers of fireworks to stock ‘quieter’ fireworks for public use.

They also recommended that the Drone Policy be adapted to prohibit the release of lanterns and balloon from EDDC property and land and the release of any firework (above 90db) from EDDC land.

Concerns though were raised about how enforceable the motion was, with Cllr Phil Twiss saying the the wording could need to be ‘beefed up’ as suppliers or organisers of firework displays could just say no to the request.