Concerns raised over Stafford balloon release

There has been a ban in place on releasing balloons and sky lanterns on Stafford Borough Council-owned parks and public spaces for several years, after the potential danger to animals of consuming lantern and balloon debris was highlighted.

But Councillor Andy McNaughton has called for the issue to be considered by the council once again following a recent memorial event. “It went ahead and I know people who complained about it who have livestock”, he said at the latest Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Louise Nixon said however: “I believe the family believed that it wasn’t dangerous to have a specific type of balloon. For that family and group of people, they’re already feeling bad for the situation they’re in.”

Joss Presland, the council’s head of operations including bereavement services and parks and open spaces, told the committee that the authority did not have powers to stop the balloon release. He said: “There was a motion passed some years ago by the borough (banning the release of balloons and sky lanterns on council parks and open spaces), as at other authorities including Cannock, the difficulty being that the motion didn’t come with any powers, so we don’t have any powers to stop it.

“Organisers could move onto the highway and release the balloons from there. The offence of littering isn’t the release of a balloon, it’s where the balloon falls, so that litter could fall outside of the borough.

“If people approach us and say ‘can we do a balloon release’ we say no, unfortunately we don’t allow it. There are other forms of memorial you can do – you could plant a tree or do a tethered balloon release for example, where people tie string to them and put a tent peg in and release them for a while.

“The other thing is we didn’t have a direct contact with the organiser, we only had third-party information on Facebook. We can’t as an authority contact them directly through our Facebook account because Facebook doesn’t allow us to, unless they have already contacted us.

“The team tried to find out if there was a family liaison officer appointed by the police so we could try and get contact with them that way but there wasn’t. We didn’t want to put something on the public page to say we don’t allow this to happen because we didn’t think this was appropriate for the family.

“But going forward we think we perhaps need to publicise it better at our open spaces, put up signs saying we don’t allow releases, and do something on Facebook to remind people that we don’t allow that.”

Councillor Ann Edgeller said: “It’s a shame we can’t enforce because it’s really not good.” Councillors Jack Rose and Marnie Phillips asked if the council could consider measures to enable enforcement.

Councillor Phillips said: “It’s about educating people – everybody does it and then we learn why we shouldn’t. It’s done with the best of intent and for emotional reasons, but the reality is the impact on the environment is horrific and very long-lasting.”

“Mr Presland said: “You could create a by-law or potentially add it in to the PSPOs (Public Space Protection Orders). That way it becomes covered by the PSPO and a fixed penalty notice.

“We’ve had a ban in at Cannock for five years now and this is the only I’ve known with a balloon release. More often than not people approach us and ask if they can do a balloon release, but we don’t allow them around cemeteries.”

But Councillor Andy Cooper described the by-law proposal as a 'sledgehammer to crack a nut'. 

He added: “We can have by-laws til they’re coming out of our ears and it won’t do anything because of enforcement.

“(An order restricting) cycling through the middle of Market Square is not enforced. I get nearly mown down no end of times by bikes, but no one is enforcing it and it’s ignored.

“Nobody is going to be able to track where a particular balloon came from – it just becomes a nonsense. What does work is education and people realising why it’s not on to do this sort of thing and what the impact is.

“It’s technically littering and it’s a danger to countryside. I hold my hands up – about 15 years ago my mum passed away and we had a Chinese lantern, all write a little message on it and sent it off in the sky.

“A week later I was talking to a farmer friend who was despairing about the cattle he had sick who had been chewing balloons. I was educated on it and that is a better way of doing it than trying to do a by-law.”