The River Hamble harbour master is encouraging other harbour authorities to follow his lead after 1,700 flares were handed over in an amnesty.

The Hampshire harbour authority held the five-hour amnesty on Saturday outside its Warsash office and received ‘more flares than we expected to see’.

David Evans said: ‘It was extremely successful. We had a good, steady stream of people all day.

‘It isn’t something we can do every year, because flares have a three-year shelf life, but we think that other leisure harbours around the country should do something, because there is obviously a demand.’

The only other way to dispose of flares safely is to make an appointment with the coastguard, but it does not accept flares from commercial operators, many of whom took their flares along to the amnesty.

Explosive disposer Ramora lent their expertise to the day and are handling the disposal.

Mr Evans said: ‘They put them in a big container and put a match to them. I think it is a bit more sophisticated than that but not much.’

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