Burnham Weighs Disposable BBQ Ban Amid UK Wildfires
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- Andy Burnham said the government will look at banning disposable barbecues as wildfires continue to rage across the UK, with campaigners criticizing the PM's failure to connect the fires more broadly to the climate crisis.
- A July fire at Cannock Chase's Sherbrook Valley — a special conservation area home to ground-nesting nightjars — burned an area the size of a football field; the cause was identified as a disposable barbecue.
- Recent blazes tied to disposable barbecues include a large woodland fire in Macclesfield, Cheshire (July 2026), 6 hectares of heathland damaged in Feltham near London (July 2026), and 2 hectares burned in Glen Finglas, the UK's biggest Woodland Trust site (May 2025).
- Government research found more than 1,600 fires were caused by barbecues in England from 2020 to 2024, though the study did not distinguish disposable units; nearly 4,500 fires were logged overall with the majority of causes listed as unknown.
- Labour MP Jon Pearce is drafting legislation for a partial restriction that would exempt portable barbecues (which can be carried away) while banning disposables that can reach 450C and smoulder underground even when buried.
- The National Farmers' Union has joined calls for a ban, even as government ministers have reportedly been set against such measures.
- Greenpeace campaigner Angharad Hopkinson urged the government to also tackle "the fossil-fuelled elephant in the room" driving the extreme temperatures, not just the ignition source.
Why it matters: If enacted, the ban would close a specific ignition source linked to more than 1,600 English fires over four years — including blazes that damaged protected nightjar habitat at Cannock Chase and the UK's largest Woodland Trust site. With Labour's Jon Pearce drafting partial-restriction legislation and the National Farmers' Union now on board, pressure on a previously reluctant ministerial position is intensifying, though campaigners warn the climate-driven heat behind the fire risk remains unaddressed.
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