Has Glasgow snuffed out problem fireworks?

A large group of boys walk by, all wearing black, some with their faces covered. There must have been nearly 20 of them going past us (Robbie and Calum) on Kenmure Street last night, Guy Fawkes night. “Are you undercover?”, one of them asks us. They know that, this year, the police are everywhere. We’re not undercover, but we see a policeman who is, driving around in a white Hyundai. Then a large police van follows the boys. Then another. As the group turns a corner, BANG! A firework has gone off. We’re in Pollokshields, one of Glasgow’s three designated Firework Control Zones (FCZs). Now, as we catch up to the group, the police have descended on them and are patting them down — empowered by new legislation and a mandate from the community to snuff out firework misuse. 

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Nervous anticipation accompanies Guy Fawkes night as it rolls around each year. Facebook groups issue night safety reminders, pleading with parents of teenagers to keep an eye on them each evening. But in some areas, that anxiety has become outright fear after years of explosive street battles between young people, in which fireworks are used as projectiles to aim and let off at their opponents.

Communities in Pollokshields and Govanhill are very used to these sights; in 2018, a notable rise in firework misuse saw local football pitches used as arenas where daring rocket-dodging games were played out. Last year, Albert Drive had a bonfire lit near a roundabout into which all sorts of domestic explosives were thrown and quickly expelled out again as they ignited. These two communities, along with Broomhouse in the east (due to the presence of a dog sanctuary), became the first areas in Glasgow to have the so-called Firework Control Zones (FCZ) implemented. An attempt by Glasgow City Council last year to implement FCZs for the first time was bungled after the application paperwork was not filed by the required deadline. This year, needless to say, the necessary documents were submitted ahead of time. 

FCZs are areas in which special legislation makes it a criminal offence to set off a firework anywhere within the zone, punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of up to £5,000. The FCZ came into force on 1 November and will end on the 10th. This year, 11 communities applied for FCZs, and the eight that were refused typically didn’t have enough prior incidents of firework misuse to justify committing the extra resources there. 

In the end, the novel approach to controlling the dangerous and distressing misuse of decorative munitions was limited to only three areas. So did it work? Well, we dispatched our two best (read ‘only’) reporters to the mean streets of the Southside to see if, after a year of planning and many more of consultation, Pollokshields and Govanhill were able to overcome the banging and flashy plight of bonfire night.

More explosive than stadium pyros

Pictures of horrific burns and missing digits usually do the rounds on social media in the run up to Guy Fawkes. But, to get a deeper understanding of what’s at stake when fireworks are misused, we enlisted the help of Pollokshields resident Dave Evans.

When Evans spoke to us, he was touring the US with Mumford and Sons. Earlier this year, he was sorting the pyro show for a certain rapper called Kendrick Lamar across the US and Europe. He’s worked Glasgow and Edinburgh Hogmanay and Christmas fireworks displays over the course of his career, as well as working with artists such as Coldplay, Adele, Biffy Clyro and Take That. Suffice it to say, if you’re a world-class act in need of a pyrotechnician, Evans is your man.