With 2018 fast approaching, there is yet another opportunity for us to light up the sky with fireworks.

But many people, and pets, don’t appreciate the loud bangs.

Berry Tallett, from Maidstone, said: “The bangs just seem to get louder and louder, as does the noise from the sparkly units. Surely there must be some legal limit to the decibels a firework can produce?”

Others are concerned at the “stretching” of traditional firework events. And certainly this year “Remember, remember the 5th of November” could well have been rewritten “Remember, remember, anywhere between the 5th of October and the 5th of December”.

There is no law preventing fireworks being let off on any day of the year, but they can only be used before 11pm except on four specific occasions a year.

They are: November 5, up to midnight, and New Year’s Eve, the Hindu festival Diwali and Chinese New Year – all up to 1am.

But unless you visit a licensed firework shop, you may find it hard to buy your bangers outside certain times of the year.

Supermarkets and corner shops are only permitted to sell fireworks between October 15 to November 10, December 26, and for three days prior to the other festivals, whose dates vary.

The penalty for selling or using fireworks illegally is a fine of up to £5,000 or six months imprisonment.

The Fireworks Regulations 2004 limits the noise volume of consumer fireworks to 120 decibels. Licensed professional promoters are allowed to use noisier ones, but even they are forbidden from the aerial shells and aerial maroons – the worst offenders from previous years.

The World Health Organisation recommends humans be exposed to no more than 140 decibels and these are pretty near the limit.

The sound produced is loudest at the point of explosion and a string of explosions can make the noise seem louder to those below.

Excessive noise from fireworks can be deemed a statutory nuisance under Part III of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which gives councils the powers to prevent or stop noise. But it is for environmental health officers to judge if a complaint is a nuisance and act accordingly.

However, by the time someone has raised an officer and they have come out, the explosions may well be over.