Seaford residents told to refuse single use plastic on bonfire night

Seaford Bonfire Society, Plastic Free Seaford and Seaford Environmental Alliance are asking members of the local community to avoid pedlars selling plastic toys on bonfire night.

The groups say the pedlars themselves are often found to be in breach of their police-issued certificates which state that they must make continual progress and cannot use stalls, stands or barrows to sell from.

The products they sell do not comply with Seaford Town Council’s single use plastic policy or with the town’s certified plastic free status, which it achieved in 2020.

In a statement, Plastic Free Seaford said: “The toys only last a very short time and so are effectively single use. These plastics do not break down, instead they leach chemicals into the environment.

"There are now more microplastics (tiny pieces of broken down plastic) in the oceans than there are stars in the Milky Way.

"Humans ingest 5g of plastic through it being present in water supplies and the food chain every week.

“The only light that should be showing is the bonfire and fireworks display itself.”

If a members of the public see a pedlar breaching their certificate conditions, they are asked by the three groups to ask for their name and certificate number and report it to a member of the police or Seaford Town Council if it is safe to do so on the night, or after the event.

Plastic Free Seaford said: “We hope that it will become too inconvenient for the pedlars to sell plastic products in Seaford and too difficult to make a profit that they won’t return in subsequent years.”

The Seaford Bonfire Society has started a crowdfunding page to raise £5,000 to ‘Help Keep Us Burning’.

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The Society say with with fixed overheads rising year on year, they cannot continue to put on the spectacle each October without the support of those who attend.

This year’s event will be taking place Saturday, October 22, with the annual bonfire procession starting around 7pm at the White Lion Pub and finishing at Martello Fields for a Bonfire and fireworks display at 9.25pm.