Landowners are urging councillors to ban the use of sky lanterns in New Year celebrations in York, East and North Yorkshire.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) warns the lanterns’ wire frames can kill cows and other animals, which swallow them and get them stuck in their guts. It also warns that they can be a fire hazard.

The association is urging local authorities to include a ban on their use when granting entertainment licences.

CLA North Regional Director Dorothy Fairburn said: “Sky lanterns are serious fire hazards, they also endanger the lives of grazing livestock as well as other wildlife, and create unnecessary litter. Those releasing lanterns often have no idea of the hazard they pose, nor do they consider the implications of releasing a naked flame with absolutely no control over where it will land.”