Council will send in contractors to remove contentious bonfire

A Belfast City Council committee has voted in favour of a proposal to send in contractors to remove a contentious bonfire in south Belfast.

The decision was taken at City Hall this afternoon.

There had been concerns that the power supply has been put at risk at Belfast City Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital because the bonfire lies near a major electricity substation between the Donegall Road and the Westlink.

Separate concerns centre on the presence of asbestos at the site and the council voted to write to the minister for the environment to act immediately to have it removed.

The electricity substation buildings are behind the fence just metres from the bonfire, while asbestos is not far away

Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan called for the PSNI to help ensure the bonfire was removed safely.

He said he did not know exactly when it would be removed.

The bonfire is due to be lit on Friday as part of the Eleventh night celebrations.

Bonfires are lit annually in some unionist areas across Northern Ireland to usher in the Twelfth of July, the main date in the parading season.

A council spokesperson said members of the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee decided to approve the use of a contractor to remove bonfire materials from the site at Broadway Industrial Estate.

Members also decided that the council would write to the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to seek assurance that the NIEA will fulfil its obligations in relation to the site.

Sheehan said it was "clearly a health safety issue" and there was a "danger to residents, children and patients".

He said the PSNI must "step up" to ensure the bonfire is removed safely.

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson has said he plans to bring legal action to stop the bonfire being dismantled and has questioned the decision making process behind the vote.

Belfast Health Trust said the substation near the bonfire supplied both hospitals.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency said it was first alerted to the issues around the bonfire on 16 May and had been engaging with the landowner, the city council regularly since then.

"An inspection of the site was carried out, an enforcement investigation was initiated and the agency engaged the landowner to ascertain how the asbestos material could be removed from the site and, if that could not be done by July 11, on the mitigating measures that needed to be put in place," it said.

"Staff from the Environmental Crime Unit within NIEA remain in ongoing contact with the council and their enforcement investigation continues in relation to the site."

Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) said it had expressed concerns over the bonfire's "proximity to the substation causing potential risk to critical infrastructure and power outages".

The trust said it had contingency measures including back-up generators and it was confident there was no need to cancel any planned treatments or procedures.

'Last minute controversy'

Asked about the bonfire on BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme, the grand secretary of the Orange Order, Rev Mervyn Gibson, said: "I'd support what needs to be done for health and safety for everybody.

"It depends on what health and safety says.

"I'd rather that there wasn't a controversy over this at the last minute."

In a statement, the council said it previously took enforcement action and secured the site due to asbestos in 2011

On Tuesday, NIE said it had put mitigations in place, including turning off the transformers adjacent to the bonfire, building scaffolding with metal sheeting around the transformers and placing steel plates on open cable ducts to reduce the risk of fire and damage.

However, it warned there would be "a reduction in security of supply" for the area.

"We would remind the public that flames near to power lines and electricity substations pose serious risk to everyone's safety and wellbeing," NIE added.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt visited the site on Tuesday.

'Detrimental to community relationships'

DUP councillor Sarah Bunting said removing the bonfire is "going to cause real tension between those policing structures in the local community"

DUP councillor Sarah Bunting said her party did not back this proposal and said there are now "a lot of disappointed children on this site".

"Our goal has always been to see all the bonfires across Belfast delivered in a positive and safe way," Ms Bunting told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme.

She said there has been "ongoing engagement with this community" in relation to the bonfire.

She said it was "detrimental" to those relationships after community representatives and bonfire builders had put mitigations in and worked with NIE by erecting scaffolding and putting up metal panels to protect the substation.

She said she thought that the controversy around the bonfire "may have come down this week to media and political pressure on NIE".

She said taking down the bonfire sets back "significant progress that's been made this year to reduce anti-social behaviour at the Broadway interface".

Also speaking to Evening Extra on Wednesday, the Alliance Party Belfast councillor Emmet McDonough-Brown said he does not want to "be in a position where you are making big interventions into communities who are trying to express their cultural identity".

"But there have to be some rules around it being safe, not causing damage to private property and that the wellbeing of the people taking part is protected, and I think that is best served by this decision made today."

"The overall public safety is best served by clearing the bonfire at this site," he added.

'Political failure'

Earlier, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader Claire Hanna said there had been a very weak response "politically and from agencies" to the issue.

The MP for the area told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster programme it was "beyond" her "why the minister didn't remove or order the removal of this material a couple of months ago".

Asbestos concerns

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said in a statement it had put in place mitigations "over the past week including the further covering of the asbestos containing material, the use of fire-retardant material and the erection of additional fencing".

It added the department was in ongoing contact with Belfast City Council.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was working with "partner agencies, community representatives and landowners to address community safety issues relating to bonfires".

It said due to the "potential that judicial proceedings may be initiated" it would not comment on specific bonfires.

Who owns the land where the bonfire is?

The landowners, Boron Developments, bought the site in the summer of 2017 and were made aware of asbestos at that time.

In a statement on Tuesday Boron Developments told the BBC's Talkback programme it had engaged with a waste management company to remove the asbestos but the company needed "no personnel" on the site in order to complete the removal of asbestos.

Due to people "bringing in materials and building the bonfire" the company told the landowners it could not complete its work.

Belfast City Council said while the lands at the site remained "the responsibility of the landowner" the council and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) were "working together in relation to this site".

The council said after the landowner appointed a contractor that carried out work to "contain and secure the asbestos" the NIEA assessed the site and had "recommended that further mitigating measures should be put in place".

The council added that the council and NIEA had agreed those measures and the NIEA investigation continues.

Members of the council's Strategic Policy and Resources Committee met on Thursday to discuss the site.

"Following discussion, elected members agreed to accept the extra mitigations proposed by NIEA, together with the additional precautionary measures outlined," the council said.

The committee also considered a proposal from the SDLP to employ licensed contractors to remove the asbestos.

The council heard that would cost a six-figure sum and the motion was voted down.