The council wants power to ban barbecues, open fires and fire pits in public spaces. The consultation runs nine days and closes at 9am on Friday 11 September. What is proposed and how to respond.
Canterbury City Council wants to know whether it should ban barbecues, open fires and fire pits in the district’s public spaces. It has given residents nine days to say so.
The consultation on a proposed Public Spaces Protection Order opened on Tuesday 2 September and closes at 9am on Friday 11 September (Canterbury City Council).
The council says the proposal follows “a request from central government and a number of wildfires across the district”.
What could be banned
The council says a PSPO could prohibit or restrict activities such as:
- lighting barbecues in designated public spaces
- lighting open fires
- using portable stoves or fire pits
- discarding lit cigarettes or other smoking materials
- any activity that creates an unnecessary fire risk during periods of heightened wildfire risk
The consultation questionnaire goes one step further than that list. Question four asks how strongly you support or oppose restrictions on barbecues, open fires and fire pits, discarding smoking materials, and setting off fireworks (paper version of the survey).
Nowhere is named yet. The council says the “precise details and locations covered by any future PSPO have not yet been determined and we will take account of consultation responses”. Question five asks respondents which locations they think need extra protection.
Three fires in the district in nine days
Kent Fire and Rescue Service records show what prompted this.
On Friday 17 July, crews were called to a wildfire at Ross Gardens in Canterbury at 19:56. Four fire engines and a utility terrain vehicle attended and firefighters used beaters and a fogging unit. The incident was not closed until 23:31, and the cause is recorded as not known (Kent Fire and Rescue Service).
The next morning, at 11:05 on Saturday 18 July, two fire engines were sent to a grass fire in Pin Hill, beside Dane John Gardens in the city centre. Crews used hose reel jets and beaters. The cause is recorded as not known (Kent Fire and Rescue Service).
A week later, at 22:46 on Saturday 25 July, six fire engines and two utility terrain vehicles were sent to a grass fire near Plough Lane in Whitstable. Residents were told to close their windows and doors because of the smoke. That advice was not lifted until 07:00 the following morning (Kent Fire and Rescue Service).
None of the three has a recorded cause.
The county picture
Across Kent and Medway, firefighters attended more than 300 accidental grass fires between the start of May and 27 July. More than 130 of those were in July alone, and more than 30 came in the single weekend of 24 to 26 July.
Kent Fire and Rescue Service says those weekend fires were caused by out-of-control bonfires, campfires left unattended, disposable barbecues and discarded cigarettes.
Nick Scott is the service’s Assistant Director for Response. “During prolonged periods of hot weather, the ground can become extremely dry, which causes fires to start and spread quickly,” he said. He added that the fires “require a huge amount of resources”, and that they can injure or kill wildlife and destroy property (Kent Fire and Rescue Service).
Why the deadline is so tight
Nine days is unusually short for a council consultation. Canterbury’s other live PSPO consultation, on dog control on the beaches and open spaces, has been open since July and does not close until 1 October.
The reason is in the government request the council refers to. On 14 August the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government wrote to local authority leaders in England. The letter asked them to review and use PSPOs “where appropriate, in your local areas to mitigate the risk of wildfires”. It also told them the consultation requirements for those orders “could be complied with at pace in a targeted way to enable the urgent use of these powers” (letter of 14 August 2026, published by Allington Parish Council).
The same day, the government published statutory guidelines banning the sale of disposable barbecues, in stores and online. Enforcement falls to the Office for Product Safety and Standards and to local authority trading standards teams. The ban is temporary: the guidelines say they will be withdrawn “as weather conditions change sufficiently to significantly reduce the risks” (GOV.UK).
What it means for you
If you barbecue on Tankerton Slopes, light a fire pit on the beach at Herne Bay or use a portable stove in a park, this is the consultation that decides whether that becomes an offence. Breaching a PSPO is an offence under section 67 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. Section 68 lets a council issue a fixed penalty notice instead of prosecuting, capped at £100.
Nothing has been banned yet, and no locations have been picked. The council says it will take account of responses before deciding, which makes question five, on which places need protection, the one worth answering carefully.
To respond:
- Online survey: online1.snapsurveys.com
- Paper version: download the questionnaire and post it to the Consultations team, Canterbury City Council, 14 Rose Lane, Canterbury, CT1 2UR
- Email: consultations@canterbury.gov.uk
- Phone: 01227 862000, 8.45am to 5pm Monday to Friday
- Deadline: 9am, Friday 11 September 2026
If you spot a grass fire, Kent Fire and Rescue Service asks you to move somewhere safe and call 999 with the size, terrain and location.
More Canterbury council information: bin collection days, council tax bands and planning applications.
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