Driving on Bonfire Night: road closures, where to park and what the fireworks law says

The short answer

If you live near a display, move your car before the closures and the crowds, not after; if you are visiting one, use the official car park or the train and leave the car at home. Park away from the launch site and downwind of it if you can, under nothing that can drop sparks or branches, and never on a route a council has marked as closed or suspended. Fireworks may not be set off in the street or any public place, and on Bonfire Night the curfew is midnight rather than the usual 11pm, as the GOV.UK fireworks page read on 3 November 2026. If your car is damaged, photograph it, report it to the police on 101, and tell your insurer.

Where roads close: Lewes as the example

Lewes in East Sussex has the largest Bonfire Night in the country and the most disruption. The parish council notice for 2026 says road closures start at 4.45pm on Thursday 5 November at five junctions around the town, including the A27 with the A277 at the Ashcombe roundabout, the A275 with the B2116 and the A26 with the A2029. Residents are advised to get vehicles home before 4pm to be clear of the closures, and visitors are advised not to bring vehicles into the town at all. Trains are not expected to stop at Lewes or the nearby stations from 5pm until service resumes the next day, so the usual advice to arrive by rail does not apply either; the message from the councils is to go to a display closer to home.

Most other towns are smaller versions of the same thing. Roads around the display site close for the evening, on-street parking nearby is suspended with cars towed if left, and the exit afterwards takes longer than the arrival. Your council's events or roads page carries the local notice; read it the day before, because timings vary and the press often quotes last year's.

Parking near a display

1. Not on a suspended street. Signs go up on the routes the procession or the crowd will use. A car left on one is towed, and getting it back is a long, expensive evening. If you live on such a street, move the car in the afternoon.
2. Not under the fallout. Spent fireworks come down somewhere, and so do sparks from a large bonfire. Park upwind of the launch area and away from the drop zone the organisers rope off. Hot debris marks paint and can craze a lamp lens.
3. Not under trees or scaffolding. Bangs spook birds and the odd branch; sparks and dry leaves do not mix.
4. Somewhere lit, with people about. A quiet side street a mile from the display, at the time most people are watching the sky, is where car thieves and vandals do their best work. A bright, busy road is safer than a dark empty one.
5. Leave nothing on show. Coats, bags and the sat-nav cradle go in the boot before you walk away, not when you get back.

Fireworks and the law

The GOV.UK page sets out the rules plainly, as it read on 3 November 2026. It is against the law to set off fireworks between 11pm and 7am, except that on Bonfire Night the cut-off is midnight, and on New Year's Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year it is 1am. You must not set off or throw fireworks, including sparklers, in the street or any other public place; a car park, a pavement or a residential road is a public place. Adult fireworks cannot be bought by anyone under 18, and the biggest category is for professionals only. Shops registered to sell fireworks may do so for private use only between 15 October and 10 November, in the last week of December, and in the three days before Diwali and Chinese New Year. The penalties run to an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison, with an on-the-spot fine of £90.

For a driver the practical point is the public-place rule. A firework let off beside parked cars on a residential street is an offence in itself, before any damage is done, and the police on 101 is the right call if it is happening outside your house.

If your car is damaged

Photograph the damage and anything that caused it, including spent fireworks on or around the car, before you move anything. Note the time and, if you can, who was setting them off. Report it to the police on 101, or 999 if it is still happening and anyone is in danger; GOV.UK also lists online reporting for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Then tell your insurer, with the crime reference. Check the lamps and the windscreen before you drive: a cracked lens or a chipped screen is both a safety matter and an MOT item, and a scorched headlamp lens that dims the beam is a defect in its own right.

The drive home

Displays end together, and so does the traffic. Give the crowd twenty minutes to clear the pavements before you pull out, and expect pedestrians in dark clothing on unlit lanes with their eyes still full of light. This week's Met Office outlook for Thursday to Saturday is near-normal temperatures with local frost and fog, so the drive home may be the first foggy one of the season: dipped headlights when you cannot see 100 metres ahead, fog lights only while you need them, and a bigger gap than feels natural. And if you have been standing by a bonfire with a drink, the answer to whether you should drive is the same as on any other night.

Finally, the engine. Highway Code rule 123 says you must not leave a parked car unattended with the engine running on a public road, which on a cold evening at the edge of a display field is exactly what people do while they go back for the children. Switch it off and take the keys.

Sources and method

This article contains no MOT statistics. The fireworks rules are quoted from GOV.UK and the Lewes travel details from a parish council notice dated 22 September 2026, both as read on 3 November 2026; parking-suspension and towing times for Lewes are not given because the district council page could not be read today, and readers are sent to their council's own notice. The MOT reliance notice below applies to the MOT history this site refers to elsewhere.

• GOV.UK: Fireworks, the law
• Ringmer Parish Council: Lewes Bonfire celebrations, 5 November 2026 (travel notice)
• GOV.UK: Contact the police
• GOV.UK: The Highway Code, driving in adverse weather conditions (rules 226 to 237)
• Met Office: UK forecast

This article is general information drawn from published test records. It is not professional, mechanical or legal advice, and an MOT pass or a clean MOT history does not guarantee that a car is roadworthy today. If you are unsure about a car, have it inspected by a qualified mechanic. You can check any vehicle's MOT history free on the official GOV.UK MOT history service.