§ 3 pm
§ Mr. Andrew Rosindell (Romford)I rise on behalf of my constituents Joanne and John Sifleet of Riversdale road in Collier Row, Romford. A horrifying incident took place at their house on the evening of 5 November, Guy Fawkes' night. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sifleet cheated death when, just after 8 o'clock, a massive firework smashed through a double-glazed window and exploded in a room that she had occupied only a few minutes earlier.
Joanne Sifleet and her husband John were sitting downstairs when a mammoth firework ripped through the upstairs bathroom window, devastating everything in its path. Their daughter Chloe, a pupil at the local Clockhouse infants school in Collier Row, had been in the bathroom only minutes before. Luckily, she escaped injury, having left the bathroom to join her sister Gemma, 4, in another room upstairs. As reported in the local Romford Recordernewspaper, her mother said:
We heard this almighty bang…the kitchen ceiling started to fall down. We raced upstairs and I could hear my children screaming, 'We don't want to die. Mummy.Clearly, that was a horrific incident for any family to endure. After it, Mr. and Mrs. Sifleet immediately organised a petition among residents of the Collier Row and Romford area. The petition was collected last weekend and contains well over 100 signatures.The petition states:
To the House of Commons:
The Petition of the residents of Romford and the Collier Row area
Declares that "Display Fireworks" and imported non British Standards Fireworks have become such a nuisance to the general public that their sale and illegal importation must be restricted.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Secretary of State for Home Affairs to introduce Legislation which will ban the sale of "Display Fireworks" to the general public and stop the import and sale of non British Standard Approved fireworks.
To lie upon the Table.