North Yorkshire Council is exploring tighter controls, including a potential public space protection order, to manage unregulated Bonfire Night activities on Scarborough's North Bay.
North Yorkshire Council could bring in new restrictions to manage activities on Scarborough’s beaches on Bonfire Night, following significant concerns regarding environmental pollution and animal welfare.
The potential introduction of stricter regulations comes after alarming reports of dangerous and disruptive behaviour during recent celebrations on North Bay.
These unregulated events severely impacted the Scarborough Sea Life Centre, a prominent local attraction dedicated to marine conservation and the protection of vulnerable aquatic species.
Management at the facility expressed profound outrage over the environmental and safety hazards caused by members of the public hosting impromptu fireworks displays near the coastline.
Andrew Clay is the General Manager of Scarborough Sea Life Centre.
He highlighted the severe impact the festivities had on the local marine environment, last year, particularly noting the dangers posed by falling debris and explosive fireworks:
"Plastics in the sea are a big issue for us. I have to say I was appalled at bonfire night on the amount of activity on North Bay, the pollution being fired into the ocean, people firing rockets, people firing rockets over the Sea Life centre, plastic debris entering into our penguin enclosure, it really was an absolute disgrace."
In response to these distressing incidents, local authorities are now urgently reviewing their current enforcement measures to ensure the safety of both the public and local wildlife.
Karl Battersby, North Yorkshire Council's Corporate Director For the Environment, confirmed that the authority is actively investigating methods to prevent any repeat of such disruption:
"Yeah I mean my understanding is there is actually by-laws in place that prohibit the setting of fires on the beach. We have been having some discussion about whether we do another public space protection order that would that would give us tighter controls and also considering whether it might be more beneficial to actually have an organised event somewhere that people could attend so it would stop people carrying out sort of impromptu events on the beach that cause the issues that we heard of earlier. So that's all things we're currently looking at and trying to put something in place before next bonfire night."
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