Retailers and landowners back "Ban the BBQ" campaign

Disposable BBQs and fires are now banned across vast swathes of the open countryside across Dorset and the New Forest.

The campaign started in May 2020 when Brockenhurst business Streets Ironmongers pulled disposable BBQs from sale and Brockenhurst Business Association urged other retailers in the village to join them.

Over 50 retailers supported the campaign across the National Park.

Since then, the New Forest National Park Authority has called on other retailers across the Forest to remove them from sale and gained support from national retailers including Waitrose, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Sainsburys.

Other stores such as Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi are still stocking them.

This year Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council have also put in measures to control the use of disposable BBQs and have been asking local retailers to withdraw them from sale.

Forestry England and National Trust have banned BBQs and fires on their land, and this how now been extended to Hampshire County Council’s Lepe Country Park and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust land.

More than half the National Park is internationally protected because of its rare wildlife, the woods and lowland heathland are of global environmental importance for wildlife and their peaty soils store carbon and help reduce climate change.

Wildfires at this time of year could cause immense damage to the ground and will release carbon from the habitats as well as damage the fauna and flora .

Steve Avery, Executive Director of Strategy and Planning at New Forest National Park Authority said: ‘We still need your help to make the whole of the National Park BBQ-free.

Please ask your local store to stop selling disposable BBQs and to display a campaign poster available to download online.’