Liverpool parade report leads to flares ban call

Pyrotechnics should be banned in public spaces and councils should have powers to remove dangerous scaffolding on buildings during public events, a council leader has said.

It follows the findings of a report by safety experts into the staging of Liverpool's Premier League title victory parade on 26 May 2025.

It revealed almost 150 people were injured during the parade in circumstances not related to the Water Street incident, which saw Paul Doyle, 54, drive at crowds "in a rage", with the majority of injuries being burns.

Liverpool City Council leader Liam Robinson said he had written to the Home Secretary calling for tighter rules around the use of flares.

His letter also called for new powers to stop people climbing on lamp-posts, bus shelters and scaffolding at major events.

Robinson said while he "completely understands people want to get the best vantage points, climbing on to scaffolding that is not designed for large numbers of people puts everyone at risk".

Safety expert Eric Stuart found planning ahead of the event had been "thorough", but found gaps in legislation allowed some "high-risk behaviour" amid the "unprecedented" crowds, when 1.2m people descended on the city for the event.

Robinson said: "At the moment we have very few powers to compel landowners to make scaffolding or empty buildings safe, or even in the most dangerous circumstances, removing completely.

"We would argue that's a very proportionate power we should have."

The Labour MP for Birkenhead and government minister Alison McGovern said the government would read the report and deliver an appropriate response to the recommendations.

"Safety is incredibly important and I will read the city council's report in detail, and it deserves a proper response," she said.

"Those parades are an opportunity where families and people of all ages get to be together and celebrate their heroes.

"And so that safety aspect of it has to be absolutely right, because those days are ones we remember for the rest of our lives."

Liverpool's city region mayor Steve Rotheram said the report showed the city council "did everything it could to ensure all the planning needed to be in place was in place".

"There'll be lessons that obviously we can take, but I think they are wider than just the Liverpool city region," he said.

"We will always put pressure on the government to do the things that we believe are the right things for the Liverpool city region."

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