The Co-op has removed disposable BBQs from the shelves of its stores near national parks.

130 of the chains stores within 1 mile (1.6km) of national parks will not sell disposable BBQs in a bid to support local bans and crucially, prevent fires.

Reacting to the ban, Iain Nixon, Team Leader at Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team, said: “As a mountain rescue team, we have been involved in wildfires alongside Northumberland Fire and Rescue. Being able to minimise the risk to other people, and from an environmental point of view, that (not selling BBQs) is one means to reduce the risk.

“At the end of the day, it is down to people acting responsibly.”

Northumberland’s Mountain Rescue Teams were recently called out to a fire at Kyloe Woods which covered an area of over 70,000 square metres. It is not yet known if that fire was started by a disposable BBQ, but an investigation is underway.

Adele Balmforth, Buying Director at Co-op, said: “Whilst the majority of consumers use, extinguish, and dispose of instant BBQs safely, and we continue to sell many of them from our stores across the UK, we respect that local decisions to protect the parkland have to be made.

“Where we have stores in, and within a one-mile radius, of a National Park we have removed instant BBQs from sale to help protect the landscape of the communities in which we serve.