Ypres (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The southern Westhoek mayors, including Ypres Mayor Katrien Desomer, agree on a full New Year’s Eve fireworks ban in 10 towns; only professional displays remain allowed.
As VRT News reported, the mayors of the southern Westhoek region want a full ban on fireworks in their towns on New Year’s Eve. The Arro Ypres police zone already has rules limiting fireworks, but people were still allowed to use them during a short period on December 31, 2025.
The municipalities in this zone include Ypres, Poperinge, Wervik, Zonnebeke, Langemark-Poelkapelle, Moorslede, Staden, Vleteren, Heuvelland, and Mesen. The mayors say the new ban would make celebrations safer and reduce accidents.
“Meanwhile, an agreement has been reached among the mayors to no longer allow exceptions for New Year’s Eve,”
says Ypres Mayor Katrien Desomer (Team Ypres), also chair of the police zone.
“The fireworks have been a tradition for years, but more and more mayors are having trouble with them.”
What steps will Southern Westhoek take to ban fireworks on New Year’s Eve?
During the last New Year’s Eve, many residents used the allowed time from 11:30 PM to 1:00 AM to set off fireworks. Large numbers of fireworks and explosive devices went off, especially in Ypres’s Grote Markt. Police closed parts of the road as a safety measure to protect people in the area.
Officials mentioned that until now, towns in the southern Westhoek region could make exceptions to the fireworks rules on New Year’s Eve. This allowed residents to set off fireworks for a short time despite the general ban. In practice, only Mesen, the smallest town in the Arro Ypres police zone, allowed fireworks. The other towns followed the restrictions.
“We made that decision after an incident involving fireworks in which people were burned,”
says Mesen’s mayor, Sandy Evrard (MLM).
“Actually, there was already an agreement last fall that a general ban was needed,”
says Desomer.
“But the zone’s police regulations weren’t amended in time to implement the ban then. The amended regulations have since been approved by the police council. I expect that approval will also be forthcoming in all municipal councils in the coming months.”
The new ban puts the southern Westhoek in line with trends across Flanders. Today, Jan 3, 2025, 3 out of 4 Flemish municipalities have a full ban on fireworks for New Year’s Eve. West Flanders was, until now, the most fireworks-friendly province, with more than half of its towns allowing fireworks during the holidays. Authorities say professional fireworks displays will still be permitted.
“With the ban for private individuals, we hope to prevent dangerous incidents in the future. But fireworks remain fun when used by people who know what they’re doing,”
concludes Desomer.
In recent years, most of the towns in Belgium have allowed residents to use fireworks on New Year’s Eve. In December 2023, research indicated that approximately half of the towns in Flanders would still allow individuals to use home-assembled fireworks. West Flanders was the most permissive province for fireworks, with many towns still allowing their residents to celebrate with explosives.
The fireworks ban began in April 2019, when the Flemish Parliament formed a committee to evaluate whether to ban them or not. The Flemish Parliament voted to prohibit all fireworks, but this decision was declared unconstitutional by the Flemish Constitutional Court in 2020, reverting authority regarding whether or not to allow fireworks to the local municipalities.
