Heywood resident Donna Chadwick supports petition calling for sales of fireworks to the public to be banned

Call for sales of fireworks to the public to be banned

Heywood resident Donna Chadwick is supporting a petition to ban the sale of fireworks to the general public and is asking for other people to support her.

Donna originally set up her own petition, but following a decision by the UK Government and Parliament website to reject the petition due to its similarity to another petition, Donna is now supporting the other petition.

Speaking to Rochdale Online, Donna said: “This is something I feel very passionately about. I feel that fireworks should only be sold to people putting on organised displays. They are the people who have had training and know what to do if something goes wrong.”

Following an incident at her home in which a firework caused a fire, Donna now wants the government to stop selling fireworks to people to help prevent further incidents.

She said: “It only takes one little thing to go wrong. It doesn’t matter where you store the fireworks, things can still happen. The number of incidents is increasing and there were incidents near to where I live in Heywood. There were even videos of people setting them off from their heads and their chests. That is ridiculous.”

Donna also wants to see the ban come into place to help wildlife and older people who may be more afraid of fireworks.

“Without everyone and anyone setting off fireworks, the wildlife would be safer and people would feel safer in their homes,” said Donna. “There are a lot of animals out there that are scared of fireworks and get petrified by them and elderly people can be put on edge because of people throwing them about and being stupid with them.”

Donna is also concerned at the length of time that stores sell fireworks for.

She added: “Some places start selling them in September and sell them, through to January. Why do they need to do that? There is no need for it. This is not financially motivated at all and I don’t want to see companies lose money because of this, I just want people to be safe.”

The petition Donna is supporting can be found at:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/109111