On Thursday 22nd December 2016 DJ Pete Price of Radio City 2 (Liverpool) released 280 balloons from the top of the Radio City Tower to commemorate the lives of listeners’ loved ones who had passed away during 2016.

This annual event has taken place every year for the last 10 years. This is not an isolated event. Many companies release and have released balloons in the past including XFactor.

Releasing balloons is not an eco-friendly practice. Nothing positive is achieved. Instead balloons can travel thousands of miles and frequently end up in our oceans and waterways. Turtles mistake these balloons as jellyfish and will often die due to gut impaction. The string / ribbon / rope / twine attached to these balloons are often ingested by species, such as birds, and/or cause entanglement that often leads to death.

The Marine Conservation Society has highlighted that this act causes mass littering and is a profligate waste of Helium. (Helium is becoming scarcer and is a key gas for operating medical scanners).

At present several local authorities have a balloon release ban in place. The undersigned would now like to see the UK Parliament (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) pass legislation banning the release of all balloons (including biodegradable ones) and stop our land and seas being littering by thousands of pieces of rubber, tape, twine, string, ribbons etc.

Please visit:

https://2minutebeachcleanblog.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/how-memorial-balloon-releases-break-all-our-hearts-and-what-you-can-do-to-celebrate-a-life-instead/

http://www.mcsuk.org/downloads/pollution/beachwatch/MCS_balloons_and_chinese_lanterns_policy.pdf

http://balloonsblow.org/biodegradability-backyard-test/

Using bubbles for an event like this is a safe and cheap alternative.

Thank you for all of your support!