For the record it was Sunday 8th March when i saw my first of the season. Near Curbar Edge.
In October last year, following a public consultation, the Derbyshire Dales Council voted in a Public Space Protection Order which was effective from 10 October 2025
It prohibited the following actions:
- The lighting of fires;
- The lighting or use of stoves (with the exception of portable stoves using gas or liquid fuel with a heat output of no more than 3000 watts weighing less than 600g excluding fuel)
- Barbecues and other devices using an open flame;
- The discarding of lighted matches and other things likely to cause fire.
In public spaces.
The PSPO was extended by agreement to cover (and compliment the existing restrictions and byelaws within) the Peak District National Park, the Chatsworth and Longshaw Estates and the Eastern Moors Partnership land.
You can more or less ignore the bit about ‘3000 watts’. I don’t know anybody that knows anybody that knows why that metric was imposed. And Rangers are not carrying a heat output meter round.
What you can do is understand, appreciate and accept that a small gas or liquid fuel stove carried and used for the purpose of making a hot drink or cooking your meal on a hike, camping trip or DofE exped is still allowed. Just like it always has been.
Any other use of flame per the list at the top of this post isn’t and won’t be tolerated.
Along with some colleagues i’m spending quite a lot of time this week voluntarily qualifying as a ‘Vegetation Fire Operator’ aka someone that is trained and assessed in the skills to put out wildfires (have we just been cuffing it until now 🧐). A narrative running through the excellent learning is the stark reality, understanding and acceptance that wildfire is rapidly becoming a major issue in the UK and that lives, properties and landscapes will be lost to it.
