The bangs started in Clydach, Cwmrhydyceirw and Bonymaen at the weekend, five days early, and the dogs of Swansea Bay are already under the table. Nearly 1,900 readers have told us what they want done about it, and 98 per cent said the same thing.
Asked whether fireworks should be kept for organised displays and taken out of the shops, 1,867 said yes. Thirty-one wanted them left on sale with the existing rules enforced, and one wanted a middle way of quieter fireworks and a shorter selling window.
The law they are up against this week is the one that lets any adult buy a box from 15 October to 10 November and let it off until 11pm, or midnight on Bonfire Night itself.
Dogs under the table, fireworks at 2am and £50 of calming tablets
Animals ran through the comments more than anything else. Roughly one in seven was about a dog, cat, horse, livestock or wildlife, from cats hiding after a weekend of bangs to a spaniel that a professional trainer could not settle.
One reader had paid £50 for calming tablets to get her Shih Tzu through Bonfire Night and New Year. Another’s dog bolted back into the house on a walk at 7pm on Sunday, a week before the night itself.
The calendar came next: fireworks on Sunday evening, fireworks at 2am and 3am, and one reader who said they run every night from late October to the middle of January. After a ban, the most common ask was simply to stick to 5 November.
Noise was the third strand. Around 50 readers would settle for quiet or silent fireworks rather than a ban, and 17 would rather watch drones.
The other side was smaller but not quiet. Readers who want fireworks kept on sale said bans push people to louder black-market stock, pointing to Ireland and the Netherlands, that drone shows cost far more than fireworks, and that a family can no longer afford the gate at an organised display.
Westminster said no to a sales ban. A 110-decibel limit is what is on the table
The Swansea Bay vote lands on a question Westminster has already been asked. A petition to limit sales to council-approved events closed in February with 195,930 signatures, and the UK Government’s answer was that it had no plans to ban sales to the public.
What it did instead was consult on quieter fireworks. The proposal is to cut the maximum noise of a shop-bought firework from 120 decibels to 110, which the Government says would halve how loud it sounds and take about a third of what is on sale now off the shelves.
It also asked whether to go further, to 100 or 90 decibels, and whether to ban the bigger multi-shot fireworks from public sale altogether. Louder effects would stay legal for professional displays.
A ban on shop sales, a shorter selling window and a tighter curfew are not in it. The consultation closed on 7 October and the UK Government has yet to say what it will do with the answers.
The Welsh Government has said for years that it has no specific powers over fireworks and has asked Westminster for them. Scotland does have them, and Edinburgh has 14 control zones this year where private fireworks are banned from 30 October to 8 November.
Bonfire Night 2026 in Swansea: the fines, and the Singleton Park display
Breaking the 11pm curfew can mean a £90 on-the-spot fine, or up to £5,000 and six months in prison if it goes to court, according to Senedd research. Enforcement falls to the police and the council.
Swansea Council’s own display is on Thursday. It is at Singleton Park for the first time, gates open at 5pm, the fireworks go up at 7.30pm, and tickets are £6 for an adult and £13 for a family of four.
Council leader Rob Stewart said when the move from St Helen’s was announced that families could “enjoy Bonfire Night safely, leaving the fireworks to the professionals”. Whatever Westminster decides on the shops will come too late for this Thursday.
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