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18
Jun
Mayor calls for ban on disposable barbecues
Mayor David Skaith has called for a ban on disposable barbecues.
In a Facebook post today (June 18), the Labour mayor of York and North Yorkshire revealed he had written to local supermarkets asking them to stop selling the items.
He said his request had generated "some positive response" - although the post featured a picture of disposable barbecues still being sold at a Sainsbury's in Malton.
Mr Skaith issued the plea on the day York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, which he chairs, published its response to the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum's debrief into last summer's Fylingdales Moor wildfire.
The wildfire is believed to have been initially started by someone cooking using a naked flame, such as a campfire or gas burner, at a remote location.
The combined authority response said the incident highlighted the dangers of naked flames in the countryside, which is why it was calling on all supermarkets to stop the sale of disposable barbecues in the region and backing national calls for an all-out ban.
Mayor David Skaith and his deputy Jo Coles
Mr Skaith said the Fylingdales fire had a "devastating wildfire on a scale we’ve never seen before in North Yorkshire" and the incident "pushed our firefighters to their limits and disrupted the lives of farmers and local communities".
He added:
The response from firefighters, farmers, landowners, volunteers and local communities was outstanding, but we cannot rely on goodwill alone. As the risk of wildfires grows, so too must our preparedness.
The lessons from this incident are clear, we need stronger resilience, better coordination and a more robust approach to preventing, responding to and recovering from major wildfires
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