A Kent retailer has advised fellow independents to consider their social responsibility when selling disposable barbecues.

South East Fed member Hitesh Pandya, who runs Toni’s Newsagent in Ramsgate, said he has never sold barbecues because of a problem of litter on his nearby beach.

“We thought about the mess on the beach, but fires are also now a problem,” he added. “I don’t think barbecuing should be banned, but single-use barbecues should be. Retailers need to think about their wider social responsibility.”

Pandya’s advice comes after calls to stop the sale of single-use barbecues intensified as the UK’s heatwave continued.

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Earlier this month, Marks & Spencer announced it was stopping the sale of disposable barbecues in response to a growing number of national wildfires, some of which have been caused by discarded barbecues.

Campaign group Keep Britain Tidy has repeated calls for the government to introduce legislation to tackle the problem.

Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, Allison Ogden-Newton, said: “Unless we outlaw the sale of disposable barbecues and introduce a comprehensive deposit return scheme that would remove littered glass from our environment, both these dangerous forms of litter will remain a significant risk to our environment and a potential threat to life.”

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