Councillors join forces to seek ban on public sale of fireworks
SOUTH Side councillors have joined forces to push for a ban the sale of fireworks to the public.
The move has received cross-party support among four Pollokshields councillors who have agreed to write to Westminster in a bid achieve a ban.
They will reach out to Kelly Tolhurst, Minister for Small Business, Consumer and Corporate Responsibility, as they believe a ban would improve public safety and reduce environmental harm.
The motion, which would not include licensed events, comes after a three-year-old girl was left with serious burns when a firework was set off inside her close.
Around 40 people were involved in the wilful misuse of high-grade fireworks on November 5, trapping people in their homes. Police officers were also forced to withdraw after coming under a direct attack.
Councillors Jon Molyneux, Greens, Norman MacLeod, SNP, David Meikle, Tory, and Hanif Raja, Labour, agree action is needed to ensure this doesn’t happen again and have set up a joint action plan with police, fire and rescue, trading standards and community representatives.
The Scottish Government has agreed to consult on fireworks regulation, after 300,000 people signed a petition to Westminster calling for them to be banned. The petition was debated in the Commons last month.
Mr Molyneux said: “The real issue here is the orchestrated battles between young people letting off lit fireworks in the street.
“When the police intervened to stop that from happening, they become a target. This has been a problem for a long time and there has been a huge response from the community who want something to be done.
“We are not prepared to go on like this. We held a community meeting recently with elected members and police to explore ideas on how we could put an end to this.
“There is the opportunity to change the law. Westminister can ban the sale of fireworks to individuals completely, but Holyrood can only impose a curfew to restrict them.”
There is currently a
news@ eveningtimes. co.uk two-week period for members of the community to buy fireworks in Scotland.
Mr Molyneux continued: “More than 300,000 people have signed a petition to ban the sale of fireworks except to licensed events, which was debated by the House of Commons a couple of weeks ago. Politicians from all parties seemed to agree with the petition and there is cross-party support from all the Pollokshields Councillors to make sure we do what it takes to prevent these incidents.”