THE headbangers are out in force again.

Though the earth didn't move again for me during the latest three earth tremors felt in the area on Tuesday I nearly jumped out of my skin after some idiot let off a huge banger in Bradshawgate.

How long do we have to put up with such idiocy?

The area's three MPs sent in a 6,000 signature petition to PM Tony Blair last week calling for key reforms to existing laws which would limit sales and for licensed vendors.

The quicker they are introduced the better,

This week three supermarkets stores have been raided in Leigh with Sainsbury's losing £5,000 worth of fireworks. So if anyone is offered any under suspicious circumstances its obvious where they came from.

I certainly wouldn't like to have been there when a box of the things I found next to my car behind the Railway Road car park on Tuesday went up.

The green box labelled bomb blast missiles contained about 100 small Roman candles in a "battery multi shot" and warned spectators must be at least 25 metres away.

While I don't wish to put a damper on organised displays I don't see why the archaic celebration should be allowed to make people's--and animals--lives a misery for weeks on end.