Edinburgh Bonfire Night: Greens call for Capital-wide fireworks ban through 'whole city' Fireworks Control Zone

Edinburgh should ban individuals from using fireworks around Bonfire Night by introducing a control zone covering the whole city, say Green councillors.

The Capital saw serious trouble on its streets on and around Bonfire Night in the last two years. In 2023 a gang of teenagers in Niddrie launched fireworks and petrol bombs at police officers. And in 2022, masked youths threw fireworks at residents and the emergency services.

New powers now allow councils to designate firework control zones (FCZs) where it will be illegal for members of the public to light fireworks, including on private property such as a garden. Fireworks would still be permitted at public displays.

Earlier this year, Greens persuaded the city council's culture and communities committee that it should seek to set up a zone or zones in time for November 5 this year. And community groups have been invited to propose by June 30 that their area should be declared an FCZ.

But Greens want to see an FCZ covering the whole city and are urging residents to lobby the council to ensure controls are brought in for every part of the Capital.

Sighthill/Gorgie Green councillor Dan Heap said: “The key arguments for Firework Control Zones are limiting emissions, protecting wildlife and pets and vulnerable residents, and none of these issues are specific to particular areas of the city. That’s why a zone covering the whole of Edinburgh makes sense.

“We’re also concerned that designating particular areas of the city could stigmatise the residents of those areas, and that is the last thing the council should be doing.”

And he said having FCZs in only certain parts of the city risked simply displacing the problem of firework use from one area to another.

Cllr Heap said: “If we have two communities next to each other and one of them has a zone and the other doesn’t, it makes one of the redundant because it’s 50 metres away across the road.”

He said he was disappointed that the council was not allowing residents to request a city-wide zone alongside individual zones, even though it was allowed under the legislation. But he said residents could still e-mail the council to request a city-wide zone and he encouraged them to do so.