£100 fines for beach barbecues start today
Barbecue by Wordridden on Flickr
Anyone using a disposable bbqs on Brighton and Hove beaches and parks could be fined £100 from today.
A new order also outlaws the release of lanterns and balloons on council-owned land.
Signage is being placed around the city to notify residents and visitors of the new rules, and anyone found in breach by an environmental enforcement officer could be issued a fixed penalty notice.
Brighton and Hove City Council began to look into the ban after a smouldering disposable bbq put in a seafront bin sparked a blaze which destroyed part of the Hollingdean waste depot in 2019.
A public consultation in which 79% of respondents supported a ban on single-use bbqs.
Stand alone, non-disposable barbecues will still be allowed on certain beaches and in parks and open spaces.
Lanterns and balloons return to the ground as litter and can be ingested by animals, birds and marine wildlife, causing risk of death, injury and entrapment.
The rules have been implemented using a public space protection order (PSPO).
LIKE WHAT WE DO? HELP US TO DO MORE OF IT BY DONATING HERE.
And don't forget to sign up to our email newsletter, bringing you the week's biggest stories every Thursday.
Barbecues are a mystery to me. Why go to the trouble of burning food over fossil fuels when one can take salads, sandwiches to the beach?
Accompanied perhaps with a mineral water?
When one is a Green Party supporter it is obvious that there are a lot of things your find a mystery – empathy, science, economics, profitable business, practicality, and listening to others.
There you go, making generalisations. Why don’t you listen to how you sound? Would you speak of various human races in such a way?
Just look at all the schemes introduced in the past and now being planned where your Green councillors ignore the basic science, don’t monitor or measure success but claim they work, don’t evaluate whether they offer the best ROI, ignore the effect on businesses, blindly follow dogma and ignore knock-on effects because they are always right, and only listen to themselves, ignore dissenters, and treat the electorate with utter contempt.
Perhaps look at the way you sound dissing those who want to eat food from a barbecue?
Another doosie from Cllr Lloyd
So u dont like, understand barby Q’s. They are fine and safe if used and disposed of correctly. Thats a big IF, its the nobs that just leave them where they have used them, still smouldering maybe,
that should be behind bars for minimum 2 weeks.!
Of course this is totally unenforceable.
Firstly, what is the definition of a disposable barbecue. I can buy this for not much more than a disposable and just leave it on the beach when I’ve finished
https://www.amazon.co.uk/KEPLIN-Portable-Tabletop-Stainless-Vegetable/dp/B0B2RKXCGX/
Secondly, it will be up to City Parks to enforce and any perpetrator can just refuse to give their details.
Green councillor Jamie Lloyd was most amusing on Radio Sussex blaming the government for allowing disposable barbecues, when what they could do is provide better facilities for their disposal or special areas for their use.
Got to disagree with you here. As stated in the article the ban will be enforced by envorimental protection officers, who are actually quite effective when confronting litter droppers and those who leave their household detritus about the neighbourhood. The disposable BBQ’s in question are easily identifiable – they are the tin foil ones that are available from any superermarket or petrol station. You can indeed buy a cheap non disposable one and leave it on the beach, along with your empties, tent and whatever else you feel somebody else should clear up for you. But that kind of misses the entire point of the ban.
I beg to differ – Jamie Lloyd says that City Parks would be enforcing the rules and issuing fines, but if a perpetrator just ignores them and refuses to give their details what will City Parks do? Call the police? Pour water on the barbecue?
Anyway, we will see if the signs have any effect soon – remember how well the 20mph signs worked.
I was unaware of Lloyd’s comments beyond what you mentioned he said about blaming the government. So yes, sounds unenforceable.
Never understood why people want to use these small disposable BBQ’s anyway. I tried one once and the food tasted like ligher fluid.
Sorry – meant to ask – what exactly is the point of the ban?
Who knows? It was initially to do with CO2 emissions but then everyone seems happy to let the Hanover Elite keep their log burners, (which are far worse).
This ban is indeed as bit odd, even if it were enforceable.
You/we can still BBQ on a cheap portable bucket stove and the problem of hot cinders remains. The problem of anti social smoke still remains.
The problem of bins being set on fire by disposed-off hot cinders still remains.
The underlying problem of too few cleaners emptying seafront bins on hot days also remains.
Flat owners who can’t BBQ at home are the worst hit buy this new ban, and it’s not really about burnt sausages is it? I do veggie kebabs on mine.
What the council must be pleased with is that they’ve stamped their little feet, and we now have a whole new set of plastic signs taped to the seafront railings to match all the other nanny state notices already posted.
My favourite sign is the one that tells people to ‘be nice to each other’.
I do wonder what the signage budget is for this city? They must have a whole department of people writing out new signs. I noticed one on Portland road today which warns motorists to watch out when they open their door. You can’t actually see this sign because it’s bolted halfway up a tall lamppost.
I guess it might work for sky watchers.
My least favourite were the laminated signs that said the Hove seafront benches would be repaired this Spring, blaming vandalism for their demise – which was and is an outright lie. With the complete lack of maintenance over the last three years they continue to rot away beneath peeling paint, and only one has been repainted so far.
I would guess it’s probably cheaper to make a few signs than to actually do the work.
Lack of enforcement is endemic in this city. Just look at the number of cyclists and eScooters who whizz along the promenade unimpeded, weaving in and out of pedestrians (sometimes hitting them). Anyone who so wishes can stick 2 fingers up at this council in the full knowledge they won’t get fined. Council wanted businesses within close proximity to the seafront stop selling disposable BBQs – they have not stopped selling them. Confusing for out-of-town visitors who see some people BBQing with bucket BBQs but are fined for using a foil tray disposable.
Barbecue in your garden not on the beach. Causes damage to a place for relaxation and mindfulness. Folk will hopefully stop now
There’s another problem, Catherine. Most Brightonians don’t actually have a garden.
Most houses have gardens Short. Most where I live in Hove anyway. We need to respect the beach that’s the point.
Most houses may have gardens “where you live in Hove” Catherine, but what about those living in flats, and elsewhere in the city, where they do not? Do you think they should move into houses with gardens?
How do disposable barbecues “damage the beach”? Are you also against reusable barbecues?
Would you like to see a total ban on all outdoor cooking lest it spoils your relaxation and mindfulness in your garden as well?
And that’s an important point Billy if Brighton and Hove only has the national average, (and I believe it’s higher), that is over 50,000 people living in flats without a garden. This ban does seem to put them at a disadvantage.
Just another reason not to visit Brighton
I won’t pay. I WILL just tell them to F.O.!!