Backlash against council bonfire regulation scheme

Belfast City Council is offering financial support for cultural events related to safe bonfires, which avoid paramilitary or sectarian trappings.

Sinn Fein members on the council have been calling for tighter regulation while the DUP insists self-regulation must be the way forward.

The council said applications for the scheme are being encouraged from a “wide range of groups across the city”. However, most bonfires remain outside the scheme.

A representative of Cregagh Estate bonfire said on Facebook that volunteers can no longer be part of a programme aimed at “controlling and eradicating the culture and tradition of people in that area” the BBC reported.

Mid Shankill Bonfire group said on Twitter that “pan-nationalism is targeting bonfire groups as part of an ongoing cultural war intent to erode any vestige of Britishness”.

Ian McLaughlin from the Lower Shankill Community Association told BBC Good Morning Ulster he understood concerns.

“I believe there is a sense of mistrust between many of these grassroots community groups and the statutory partners at the table and some political parties,” he said.

He noted that some controversial bonfires had led to an internal council review and while he welcomed a recent unionist report on bonfires, another report from the Community Relations Council painted a very bad picture of them, he said.

PUP councillor Dr John Kyle said it was a voluntary scheme and those taking part feel that it works well – but that a majority still do not engage with it.

People are “concerned that there are more restrictions coming down the road” he said, although he believes politicians and council officers want to work with communities to make bonfires “a positive, inclusive time for all the community”.

In March unionists in Mid Ulster Council said Sinn Fein “rode roughshod” over them to introduce Northern Ireland’s first ever permit system for bonfires on council property.

However, UUP councillor Trevor Wilson says unionists have now asked for a ‘call-in’ in response – a rigorous examination of the impact of the scheme – meaning it will not now roll out before July.

“I now hope that a common sense approach to bonfires is adopted by the council,” he added.