WHATEVER difficulties may arise, tighter legislation on the sale of fireworks -- perhaps even to the extent of corner shops being banned from selling them altogether, as Blackburn police supremo Chief Superintendent John Thompson urges tonight -- is plainly needed.

For the widespread abuse of them for weeks before and after Bonfire Night -- testified by the continual explosions and shrieks that terrify old folk and pets -- proves that the current controls are inadequate.

In short, too many go on sale too soon and too easily get into the wrong hands. And the number of incidents involving fireworks that the police have had to deal with in the run-up to Bonfire Night also shows not only the high level of abuse, but also what a wasteful drain they impose on police resources.

As Mr Thompson rightly remarks, there is no sense in selling what amount to explosives to the general public over the counter. Yet, in effect, that is what the present lax fireworks legislation permits.

For, apart from age, there is no restriction on the sale of fireworks. Councils, we are told, have no powers to restrict when they go on sale. Nor can they easily refuse the licences that cover only their safe storage, not who is allowed to sell them.

Indeed, so feeble is the law that when three East Lancashire MPs last year called for a special debate in Parliament on firework legislation, it was revealed that police, fire chiefs and trading standards officers had just no idea where the huge commercial display fireworks responsible for such much of the terror were coming from -- as the law and import controls make no distinction between them and the ordinary 'back garden' sort.

How much longer is it going to be allowed to go on, this annual nuisance and danger -- so great that in the past in East Lancashire cars and telephone boxes have been blown up and even a teenager killed?

It is about time it was stopped and the review of firework legislation that the government promises in the coming months would do well to confine the sale and use of fireworks strictly to organised public displays. And even though this would prevent many people from enjoying traditional family bonfire parties, it would be better to be safe than sorry. And it would put and end to the annual firework menace that is far from fun.