It's 20 minutes past midnight as I write. This early hour of New Year's Day brings explosions to the north, east and west of my house.

I can hear blasts in the distance as well as close by. There has been a constant barrage of noise for the past 20 minutes.

A dog is constantly barking in a neighbour's backyard. It is a petrified howl in response to the continued explosions.

My young daughter is asleep upstairs. I do not know how much longer she can sleep through all this din and flashing bright light.

I wonder how many other families with young children and animals are huddled together elsewhere in this neighbourhood.

The crazed revellers will not care where their rockets land. The young and the old suffer most. They are scared to be alone indoors waiting for the next rocket to explode.

It's like a new war has started. The revellers call their rockets fireworks but they are really weapons of mass mental destruction.

-Peter Mitchell, Shoreham