Councillor highlights how fireworks noise distresses certain people, pets, livestock and wildlife

Big events in Belfast might feature “silent” fireworks, if a Green Party initiative comes to fruition at City Hall.

Elected representatives at Belfast City Council have agreed a motion to explore the use of low-noise fireworks at events and include low-noise alternatives in future procurement processes. The motion, agreed at the People and Communities Committee this week at City Hall, will go to the full council meeting next month for ratification, where it is expected to pass.

The Green Party motion, forwarded by Councillor Anthony Flynn, states: “This council recognises the distress caused by high-noise fireworks to many residents, including autistic people, those with sensory issues or PTSD, elderly residents, pets, livestock and wildlife. It notes that low-noise fireworks are increasingly used at public events and can provide the same visual impact while significantly reducing noise disruption to communities.”

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The committee agreed to “explore” the use of low-noise fireworks at events run or funded by the council. This will include looking at “low-noise alternatives” in future procurement.

The committee also agreed to commission an internal report on implementation options and costs for a new low-noise fireworks policy. Elected representatives also agreed to write to the Stormont Justice Minister calling for a review of fireworks legislation and the sale of high-noise fireworks in Northern Ireland.

Councillor Flynn said after the committee meeting: “Many residents enjoy fireworks displays, but we also know that traditional high-noise fireworks can cause significant distress for autistic people and those with sensory sensitivities, people living with PTSD, older residents, as well as pets, livestock and wildlife.

“People may remember numerous occasions over the years where dogs have suffered or died, some have gotten out of their houses and later found dead by their owners because of the immense distress caused by fireworks.”

He added: “Silent fireworks are already being used successfully elsewhere and still provide the same visual spectacle whilst reducing many of the negative impacts associated with traditional fireworks displays.

“I believe that a sensible and proportionate approach is possible for this issue, I think the public are crying out for some leadership on this issue both from local councils and the assembly.”

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Father’s Day is a time to celebrate fathers and father figures. Today’s dads may be more involved in their children’s lives than ever before, sharing the day-to-day responsibilities of raising children.

But while expectations of fathers have evolved, the support available to them has not always kept pace.

My colleagues and I undertook research in partnership with Children in Wales, an umbrella body for organisations and people who work with children and families. Speaking with 97 fathers in Wales, we heard honest accounts of the joys and challenges of modern fatherhood. Their experiences revealed a common theme: many dads feel overlooked, unsupported and insufficiently recognised in their role as parents.

That’s something to consider because fatherhood can be one of the most rewarding experiences in a person’s life. As one father told us: “Being a parent is hard and life is never easy. There are always new hurdles and challenges. But it is so rewarding and I love being a dad.”

Becoming a father can also be one of the most significant transitions a man experiences. Biological changes, including a drop in testosterone levels, combined with shifts in relationships, responsibilities and finances, can leave many fathers vulnerable at a time when they are expected to be strong and dependable.

Despite this, many dads still feel unable to speak openly about their struggles. Some fear stigma. Others do not know where to seek support. In many areas, support specifically designed for fathers simply does not exist.

The consequences can be severe. Fathers can experience postnatal depression and many report suicidal thoughts. Men are around seven times more likely to die by suicide than women after becoming parents. This means that an estimated two to three babies every week in the UK lose their father to suicide within the first 1,001 days of life. The effects on children, families and communities is profound.

But our research suggests this picture is not inevitable. When we asked fathers what would make the greatest difference to their lives and wellbeing, three clear themes emerged.

The first was a desire for society to rethink the role of fathers. Many dads told us they still encounter outdated assumptions that their primary purpose is to provide financially while mothers take the lead in caring for children. They want to be recognised not only as breadwinners but also as caregivers, nurturers and active participants in family life.

Fathers described the need for parenting to be seen as a shared responsibility and for dads’ involvement in everyday activities – from school runs to bedtime routines – to be seen as normal rather than exceptional. They also called for greater visibility of dads in public messaging, advertising and media campaigns, where parenting content is still frequently directed mainly towards mothers.

The second message was that fathers’ contributions to children’s lives need to be more consistently recognised by the systems and services that support families. Many dads spoke about feeling peripheral during interactions with healthcare, education and other public services. They wanted professionals to recognise that in two-parent families there are two parents whose voices matter.

For many dads, inclusion starts from the earliest days of a child’s life. Fathers should be routinely involved in conversations about their children, consulted when decisions are being made and recognised as important figures in their children’s development and wellbeing. Small changes in professional practice could make a big difference to how valued and engaged fathers feel.

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The third theme centred on support. Fathers told us they need access to services and resources that help them become the best parents they can be. That support should begin early, ideally before or during the transition into fatherhood, when many men are navigating unfamiliar challenges and responsibilities.

Many mentioned the importance of improving paternity leave, giving fathers more time to bond with their children, support their partners and adjust to family life. Others called for services designed with fathers in mind, including dad-specific support groups, activities for fathers and children and practical guidance on parenting.

Some also pointed to the value of wider family support, including relationship counselling, mediation and legal advice when families encounter difficulties. Of course, none of these changes will happen overnight. Changing attitudes, reforming services and expanding support require commitment from policymakers, professionals and communities alike.

Optimism

But there are also reasons to be optimistic. Across Wales and beyond, researchers, practitioners, charities and fathers themselves are already working towards the shared goal of improving dads’ wellbeing so that families can flourish.

Our Dads’ Wellbeing Research Network brings together policymakers, service providers, community organisations, dads and people committed to driving that change. Father’s Day is an opportunity to celebrate dads. It should also be an opportunity to listen to them.

The fathers who took part in our research weren’t asking for special treatment. They were asking to be recognised, included and supported in one of the most important roles they will ever have.

If society can achieve that, it will not only mean improving the lives of fathers. It may also help build stronger families and give more children the best possible start in life. And that is something worth considering this Father’s Day.

The possible nominative determinism of the Makerfield constituency may prove as significant to political historians as it has been a blessing to newspaper sub-editors crafting puns on “Makerfield or Breakerfield”.

The immediate futures of Andy Burnham and Keir Starmer were decided in the historic happening of the first UK byelection to effectively elect a prime minister. It was a battle of our times.

Burnham’s success will make a new administration as it breaks the present one. Prime Minister Starmer’s government has been largely an ineffectual one – of which Burnham, crucially, was not a part.

This may be the moment – “the final chance to change”, as the victorious candidate put it – that transforms the performance and perception of Labour. But it also demonstrates how profoundly, and rapidly, politics in Britain is changing.

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Governing parties don’t win byelections, and certainly not on 23-point swings. Burnham’s 54.8% vote share, more than 20 percentage points more than that of Reform UK, was unexpectedly emphatic – a personal triumph.

The momentum behind Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, has if not stalled then noticeably decelerated. A second seat in the north-west that Reform ought to have won this year, it hasn’t – and this time resoundingly.

Much was down to Labour’s exceptional candidate – and Reform’s exceptionally inappropriate one. In the May local election, Reform was rampant, Labour won only 24% of the vote in Makerfield, and Restore Britain didn’t stand. Last night, Rupert Lowe’s party finished third.

Lowe has checked Farage with politics of such unabashed illiberalism as to make Reform resemble the Liberal Democrats. It is too simplistic to assume that had Restore not stood, its voters would have turned to Reform (and in any case, Burnham would still have won conclusively). But rather than deal in switchers, Restore’s menace is its appeal to non-voters.

This byelection was not merely a matter of getting someone into parliament to supplant a prime minister. It was intended, and needed to be, a statement.

More than any incumbent party in history, given the unique febrility of politics in 2026, Labour could not hope, much less expect, to win a byelection anywhere. Never competitive in rural constituencies, in cities Labour is prey to the Greens, in towns to Reform and Restore, and in Scotland and Wales to nationalists. (Labour did poorly in the other byelections on the same day, both in Scotland.)

Reform and tactical voting

Ironically, given the central importance of “place” in this byelection, Makerfield isn’t one. A swathe of small towns and bits of larger ones, its identity is regional and emblematic, if not typical, of seats which used in lore to weigh rather than count votes for Labour. However, new parties now appeal in a political marketplace for the disaffected.

Andy Burnham contesting a seat in Greater Manchester was almost the only likely Labour victory. There were more propitious seats, such as Gorton and Denton in February, but a weak Starmer blocked Burnham’s candidature. Weakened further by the May elections, the prime minister was unable to do so a second time for Makerfield.

As it turned out, that initial rebuff has burnished Burnham’s subsequent success. The greater marginality of Makerfield makes the statement much greater.

Reform’s rise has been tempered by two otherwise unrelated phenomena. Just as Farage inspires, he also repels: his is a unique talent for encouraging tactical voting (the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green party combined vote share of just 3.3% in Makerfield suggests as much).

Burnham’s clearest and most long-term policy – electoral reform – is intended to address the negativity surrounding politics today. The salience of proportional representation has never been greater than in Britain’s new multi-party politics. With Burnham as prime minister, it is likely to be a Labour manifesto commitment for the first time.

But Burnham’s undoubted personal popularity provides more questions than answers – not least, whether a politician who has been highly successfully regionally can translate that record to the national, and international, level.

There is also the question of whether the affability and relatability so integral to his appeal can withstand the vicissitudes of the highest office – as well as the scepticism, cynicism and increasing impatience of voters. Burnham will soon discover that the quickest way for a popular politician to become an unpopular politician is to become prime minister.

This is not Burnham’s first attempt to lead Labour. To the political questions of the day in 2010 and 2015, he was not the answer. In the post-New Labour world, Burnham lost to a softer leftist in Ed Miliband. And in the electoral wild west begat by Miliband’s party reforms, he lost to a harder leftist in Jeremy Corbyn.

But third time around, Burnham might just be the answer. The fractured multi-party politics of 2026 may respond more favourably to Labour with a leader whom its members and voters actually want to vote for.

Getting Labour’s vote out next time will be its highest priority. As almost never happens, the turnout in yesterday’s byelection was higher than in the general election.

Burnham’s re-election to parliament would always – to use the word of the age – change things. The measure would be the scale of his victory. For him to be a serious alternative leader, much less a saviour, the victory needed to be big. It was, and it was also personal.

But whether his appeal is portable will soon be the question. Some in Labour may see in Makerfield, as Churchill did El-Alamein, “the bright gleam” of victory. It certainly denotes both the beginning of Starmer’s end, and the end of Burnham’s beginning.

The Edge Green Street ground of Ashton Town Football Club might not seem the obvious place in which to spark a revolution, but it was carefully chosen by Andy Burnham as the location for his Makerfield by-election victory speech.

With the winning candidate dressed down in polo shirt and slacks, in a grassroots sort of venue, the “optics” of it all underlined his status as tribune of the people. The prime minister, we may note, is rarely seen without a suit and tie, and has struggled to shake off his reputation as a habitue of the VIP box at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

Mr Burnham stuck to the theme of his campaign, telling his audience: “We’ve been on a path for 40 years that simply hasn’t worked.” Places such as the towns and villages of Makerfield have suffered as a result. Once again, he placed himself at the head of a movement: “This is now the change moment.”

“Change” is a useful slogan that has swept Mr Burnham to an impressive victory. He is a highly experienced and skilful operator. By contrast, Reform UK fielded a substandard candidate with an unenviable social media history.

Even so, Makerfield was an almost ideal Reform constituency, and in normal circumstances it would have been an easy win for Nigel Farage’s party. Makerfield is overwhelmingly white, has a high proportion of older voters, and registered a 66 per cent Leave vote in the 2016 referendum. Reform also won all the local council seats at the elections last month.

That Mr Burnham scored an absolute majority of the votes, and a 20-point lead over his “local” Reform rival, is testament to his own past and present dedication to the area, and the way he struck a chord with so many voters disillusioned with politics. Mr Burnham offered them “unity”, “hope” and, most potent of all, the chance to oust Sir Keir Starmer.

Will he? If this is “the change moment”, when will “change” materialise? It is difficult to know exactly what the protagonists in this shadow fight for No 10 are planning.

Sir Keir says he is “not going to walk away”, and that he will fight any leadership challenge. But he may be bluffing – he could hardly admit he’s sorely tempted to throw in the towel and take up a more dignified, Blair-style international role. Sources close to Wes Streeting indicate he might launch his campaign in earnest next week, but no one has yet seen the names of the 81 supporters he needs to actually trigger a contest.

Mr Burnham, 56, has the definite air of a middle-aged man in a hurry, but some of his aides are briefing that he’d be content to wait until early September for Sir Keir, if he graciously conceded now, to vacate No 10. During this interregnum, Mr Burnham and his newly recruited high-powered advisers can work out a plan for government.

The King of the North doesn’t seem so keen on the noisy “battle of ideas” that Mr Streeting has in mind, or to take on the obviously well-briefed Sir Keir in verbal combat on policy (the prime minister has also let it be known he has a team, and funding, ready for any leadership election).

There is wild speculation that a succession of debilitating resignations by ministers, or an overwhelming number of Labour MPs nominating his rivals, will make Sir Keir’s position as leader de facto untenable – but the gossips also say he is stubborn, and that his wife Victoria wants him to fight on. What the wider party and the British people would prefer to happen seems almost irrelevant.

All will probably not become clear for some time, not least because it is up to Labour’s National Executive Committee to set a timetable only after a contest is triggered. The selectorate comprises an unpredictable mixture of Labour activists and a far wider penumbra of less engaged affiliated supporters in the trade unions. Many of the latter will, bizarrely, ordinarily be Reform voters.

In the deputy leadership election that Lucy Powell won last year, the turnout was extremely low – only 17 per cent of the 970,642 eligible voters joined in. It might well be higher this time, given that they’ll be picking the PM, as if in a game show – but also harder to call.

For now, the one thing that can unify Labour – and, indeed, anyone who values decency in public life – is the humiliation suffered by Reform UK at the hands of Mr Burnham. His messages landed well, and he was rightly the beneficiary of tactical voting by Greens, Liberal Democrats and some Conservatives. Many were appalled by the Reform candidate’s views and by Mr Farage’s inflammatory and irresponsible reaction to the murder of Henry Nowak – the call for “pure, cold rage” and the ugly riots and increasingly racialised claims that followed.

It would appear that even as the Labour Party embarks on another of its periodic civil wars, Reform has peaked and is now poorly positioned to make capital out of Labour’s divisions. That is one change all of us should welcome.

Gino Robb was found with serious injuries having suffered stab wounds when emergency services were called to Shields Road in Byker, Newcastle at 7.25pm on Tuesday (June 16).

The 25-year-old from Newcastle was taken to hospital where he died a short time later

His next of kin are aware and continue to be supported by officers, Northumbria Police said.

A murder investigation was launched and three people – two men aged 24 and 22 and a boy aged 16 – were arrested on suspicion of murder. They have since been released on police bail, pending further enquiries.

A further three people, two men aged 40 and 33, and a boy aged 16, were later arrested in the Walker area on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.

The scene on Shields Road in Byker where a murder probe is underway. (Image: NORTH NEWS)

The 40-year-old man has been released on police bail while the 33-year-old man and the 16-year-old boy remain in police custody.

Police remain in the area following the attack.

A spokesperson from Northumbria Police said: “Our thoughts remain firmly with Gino’s family and loved ones following the tragic events of Tuesday evening.

“The investigation into the incident remains very much ongoing and a wide range of enquiries have been carried out to date.

“We are re-appealing for information as a murder investigation following the death of a man in Newcastle continues.

“We remain in the Byker and Walker areas to carry out further enquiries and reassure the community at what has understandably been an unsettling time for the local community.

The scene on Shields Road in Byker where a murder probe is underway. (Image: NORTH NEWS)

“We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who saw two people on an electric motorbike which we believe entered Shields Road from the area of Grace Street in the minutes leading up to the incident, before then heading back along Shields Road and back into the area of Grace Street.

“We would also like to hear from those with CCTV, dashcam footage or mobile phone footage of these areas at around that time.

“Thank you to those who have contacted us so far and if you do have information or footage which could assist us, please get in touch so that we can provide Gino’s family with the answers they deserve.”

Witnesses or anyone with information can visit orlo.uk/bwhvg or call 101 or send Northumbria Police a DM on social media, quoting reference : NP-20260616-1033.

You can also share information anonymously through independent charity Crimestoppers by calling 0800 555 111 or visiting their website.

She also said that while there are obligations in terms of article two to protect life and article three not to subject prisoners to inhuman or degrading treatment, there is “no positive obligation, in general terms, based on article two or article three, to accommodate a trans prisoner in a prison for the opposite biological sex”.

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