FARMERS and landowners are appealing for local authorities in the region to ban the use of sky lanterns through stricter controls on entertainment licences.

With the festive season, and New Year’s Eve in particular, inviting an upsurge in the use of such lanterns, the CLA fears that it is only a matter of time before there is a serious accident.

And the organisation is urging local councils to amend their entertainment licence policy so that all new licences granted for a venue or an event include a clause prohibiting the use of sky lanterns.

Regional director Dorothy Fairburn said: “Sky lanterns are serious fire hazards, they also endanger the lives of grazing livestock as well as other wildlife, and create unnecessary litter.

“Those releasing lanterns often have no idea of the hazard they pose, nor do they consider the implications of releasing a naked flame with absolutely no control over where it will land.

“Lanterns that land in fields can get chopped up when farmers mow for silage or hay, resulting in fragments of wire in the forage.

“Cows, which naturally tend to chew things to check them out, get the wire trapped in their gut, resulting in an agonising, slow death.”

She said many countries had already banned the use of sky lanterns, including Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Spain Germany and parts of the USA.

*The CLA is looking to collect evidence of damage caused by sky lanterns to take to the Government. Those who have experienced problems caused by sky lanterns falling on their land should email north@cla.org.uk, call 01749-907070, or address tweets to: @CLANorth