How fireworks displays have become a neighbourhood row flashpoint: Locals blast ‘noisy’ rockets that scare kids, frighten pets and cause parking nightmare at bonfires – amid calls for restrictions on buying sparklers
Locals have blasted ‘noisy’ fireworks that scare children, frighten pets and cause parking to be a nightmare on Bonfire Night.
The loud displays have sparked calls for the rockets to be banned from being sold to the general public with some setting them off in their back garden for 90 minutes, leaving cats and dogs shaking and babies not being able to sleep.
One person in a leafy part of Surrey suggested this year’s display was the loudest they had ever heard and caused their house to shake and terrified their pets, with many complaining households set off the bottle rockets days and weeks before November 5.
While a dog owner resorted to ‘training’ his pooch by exposing him to the bangs outside as he is heard lovingly telling the pup ‘to be brave’.
It comes after footage also emerged of lawless thugs running riot across Britain on the eve of Bonfire Night as police were mobilised to tackle hooded yobs wielding fireworks in Birmingham, London and Surrey.
Pet owner Ricky resorted to training his pet bulldog Diego (pictured) to avoid the ‘yearly struggle’ of fireworks
The loud displays have sparked calls for the rockets to be banned from being sold to the general public with some setting them off in their back garden for 90 minutes
The debate raged on Mumsnet last night, in a thread called: ‘F**k fireworks. Every single person setting them in their gardens is an a***hole’.
The post has had a mixed reaction among the 588 comments. One person said they had to keep their cat in all evening, while another said their local Facebook group had been flooded with desperate pet owners saying their cats had gone missing and dogs had runaway.
READ MORE: How group of up to 30 marauding teenagers are terrorising second home owners on the Isle of Wight as they let off fireworks in town
The Mumsnet user who started the debate wrote: ‘We’ve had them [fireworks] continuously for over 90 minutes now, my dogs and child are terrified and my baby can’t sleep.
‘But some c*** will no doubt come along to tell me why it’s more important that they get to look at some s****y sparkly lights.’
It led calls for the Government to outlaw private use of fireworks and the need for licence for those who wish to buy them.
Another said Diazepam doesn’t even ‘touch the edges’ to soothe their ‘quivering’ hound.
‘It’s just bloody endless,’ the ysaid. ‘If they cant be banned, it should be limited to 2 hours on one evening so that we can dope our animals for that period. I can’t keep her permanently tranquilised for a whole week.’
In Surrey, Michelle Cahill’s mobile home at the top of beauty spot Box Hill was ‘reverberating’ due to the loud bangs.
‘I am sure the fireworks gave a lot of pleasure to a lot of people – but do you have to use the ones that make SUCH a loud noise?’, she wrote on Facebook.
The debate raged on Facebook with many calling for the introduction for a special licence for those who wished to buy fireworks, while others wanted private displays banned
Fireworks were launched in the centre of Ashford, Surrey, by masked yobs on Halloween
‘There are alternatives and this year was much louder than before – my mobile home on the top of Box Hill was actually reverberating. My cats are absolutely terrified – this is a national park with a lot of wildlife, not to mention many farm animals, as well as cats and dogs.
READ MORE: Carnage breaks out on streets of Birmingham, London and Surrey as gangs of hooded yobs shoot fireworks at police and cars in Halloween night of terror that saw several officers injured and scores arrested
‘I am no killjoy and I want people to have a good time – but I love my animals and to see them petrified is horrible. And of course I kept them in – but I’m not sure it made a great deal of difference to them.’
Some in response though pointed out the whole ‘experience of fireworks is the noise’ and it would be ‘like Christmas without a tree or Christmas dinner’.
Bulldog owner Ricky’s post of him trying to train his pooch Diego ‘to avoid the yearly struggle’ went viral on Facebook and TikTok on his page @BulldogPabs with more than 12,000 comments and 114,000 views.
In the one minute and 45 second clip, Ricky admitted he ‘might get some hate’ as he placed Diego outside to try and get him used to the noise.
As the fireworks explode Diego starts to bark and runaway as Ricky tries to soothe him by telling him ‘to be brave’.
Ricky says: ‘Loud noises are part of life. I get it, some dogs are terrified but come on Diego we’ve got this. I want him to be interested, not scared.’
He lovingly holds on to Diego and explains he thinks it’s safer to be sitting with him when he’s scared of fireworks ‘so if I’m sitting here and I’m okay being around the loud noises, hopefully he will’.
By the end of the clip, Diego seems less distressed and is no longer running away at the sound of the fireworks.
Hooded and masked thugs set off fireworks in Birmingham city centre on Tuesday night
The firework ‘launcher’ was used to send off multiple balls of fire, with the youth aiming the device at passers-by, buses and cars
Elsewhere, hundreds of visitors attending a firework event near Ibstock, Leicestershire, were left stranded when they returned to find their cars were stuck in the field which had been turned into a ‘swamp’.
Pictures showed cars caked in mud struggling to escape Cattows Farm with some taking to social media to call the event a ‘shambles’, reported Leicestershire Live.
Charity Leicestershire and Rutland 4×4 Response had to be called out to rescue people.
The owner of Cattows Farm, James Ludlam, disputed the estimate of the number of vehicles that were stuck. He said: ‘Everybody had assistance and people were going off the farm on their own accord. It was properly dealt with.
‘The weather and the rain was challenging for everyone concerned and as a landowner we were more than happy with the procedures put in place by the events company.
‘I did go out just to check how everything was just from a landowner’s point of view. By 8.50pm there were only half a dozen cars in the main car park getting assistance. The figure from (Leicestershire & Rutland 4×4 response) does not confirm what I saw on the ground.’
In Glasgow, Scotland, car parks were packed as many descended onto the city for the free Glasgow North East Fireworks Festival.
Glasgow Fort wrote on X: ‘The centre is busier than normal due to the Fireworks Festival taking place today. Many of our car parks are full, we advise visitors park at one of the other designated car parks.’
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