Rural leaders and fire chiefs from across the UK have called on the Government to ban the use of sky lanterns.
A group of 18 organisations including farmers’ unions, the Wildlife Trust, the RSPCA, the British Horse Society, NFU and Keep Britain Tidy, have written to Environment Minister Rebecca Pow about the lack of Government regulation on sky lanterns.
Many local authorities already ban the release of lanterns on council-owned land but the group and the UK to make their importation, use, supply or storage illegal.
NFU deputy president Stuart Roberts said it was a step the Government could take towards a safer, cleaner and greener rural Britain.
He added: “We wouldn’t light a naked flame in our home and walk away, so why would we send one into the air with no idea whose home or habitat it could eventually destroy.”
Tim Bonner, the chief executive if the Countryside Alliance said sky lanterns were a blight on the countryside.
“Once released there is no way of knowing there they will end up and all too often they end up strewn over fields causing a major hazard for grazing livestock, not to mention the fire hazard risk they pose,” he said.
LSL News.