Beauty spots barbecue ban

A BAN on barbecues and fires is in place at county council-run beauty spots across Carmarthenshire.

The hot and dry weather over recent weeks has resulted in country parks and green spaces becoming at risk of wildfire.

The risk has significantly increased with the Met Office Fire Severity Index having been at ‘high’ or ‘very high’ across Carmarthenshire.

As a result, Carmarthenshire Council has introduced a ban on the use of any type of charcoal barbecues at all of its country parks including beaches they include and green spaces across the county.

While some rain has arrived since the heatwave and temperatures lower than recent weeks, the county is still set for warm weather for the rest of the month.

Carmarthenshire Council said: “We will review the ban in light of the prevailing weather and conditions observed by our team. We are sure that our visitors will understand the need to introduce a ban which will ease the pressure on the fire service and protect our country parks and green spaces, as soon as conditions improve the ban will be lifted.”

Earlier this month all major supermarkets in the UK stopped selling disposable barbecues because of safety fears during the heatwave.

Asda and Lidl became the latest retailers to temporarily remove the product from sale, joining Aldi, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Co-op, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.

There are concerns that disposable barbecues could start wildfires after the long spell of dry weather.

Morrisons and Co-op initially limited the sale of disposable barbecues from its outlets in areas one mile from national parks across the UK. But both have now moved to a national ban and have removed the products from all stores until further notice.

The Home Office has previously said the foil grills are responsible for four per cent of serious accidental fires.