Seven months after Toronto banned the flying of kites at one Scarborough park in a response to complaints about the sport of kite fighting, Councillor Chin Lee is seeking new city-wide restrictions.

Citing continued safety concerns, Lee (Ward 41, Scarborough-Rouge River) wants council’s parks and environment committee to ask staff to “consider the issue of regulating kite fighting and the banning of hazardous kite strings in city parks.”

Kite fighting, a sport popular among South Asians in which competitors try to sever each other’s strings, was banned in August in Milliken Park. Lee sided with constituents who complained that strings discarded on park grounds were causing injuries to people and animals. But many enthusiasts said they were diligent about cleaning up and were being collectively punished for the actions of a small group of scofflaws.

Lee was out of the country Monday and unavailable for comment. In his recommendation to the committee, he wrote that allowing kite fighting to “go unchecked” in parks could “result annually in thousands of metres of hazardous kite strings being strewn throughout our parks, streets, other public lands and private properties in our populated urban areas where they can easily injure people, kill wildlife, damage private property and impede parks maintenance.”

An existing bylaw, however, already requires enthusiasts to clean up all kite remnants. It also prohibits the use of metal strings and flying kites on streets or near trees and buildings.

“There’s no harm in (Lee) asking staff to look at the problem,” said Dave Meslin, organizer of the WindFest kite festival. “But I think what he’ll find is that it’s an enforcement problem, not a policy problem. There’s no gap in the policy. We already have clear bylaws to ensure that kite flying is done safely.”

Gogi Malik, organizer of a popular kite fighting club once based at Milliken Park, said club members have completely stopped flying kites since the August ban. He said they have met repeatedly with the city to find a Scarborough park where they can fly safely — and that he has been told they will receive a permit imminently.

“We didn’t have to stop. But we wanted from the city one place which we can clean, where we can take responsibility for the thread, for the kite, for everything. And we’re all set,” Malik said. “I didn’t know there was something new from Mr. Lee.”

Malik’s club moved to Milliken Park after kite-flying was banned at Bluffers Park about seven years prior.