Letter: Create a bonfire commission to take the difficult decisions
A letter from Arnold Carton:
I was a young school teacher during the years 1995-1998, when riots over the Drumcree parades dispute regularly marred our summers.
Deserted streets and decimated tourist locations were common, together with several tragic murders over parades. Each September, I would be appalled to hear teenage pupils talk of their excitement at participating in the sometimes violent protests over the summer.
Because of this I spoke out many times on Radio Ulster (anonymously because I was a school teacher) against the idea of forcing parades through areas where they were unwelcome. When the suggestion of a Parades Commission was floated, I enthusiastically supported it.
The tension and violence over parades gradually eased and the Parades Commission has been an incredible success.
Let’s apply a similar solution to the issue of bonfires – we need a bonfire commission to adjudicate on what is reasonable and what is unacceptable.
Our unionist politicians do not want to deal with this troublesome issue. A radio commentator even recently commented on the difficulty of getting unionist parties to comment on a bonfire that was close to dumped asbestos and to the electricity substation supplying two major hospitals.
Let’s delegate the decision to a bonfire commission.
It could, for instance, take into account the distance of the bonfire from any nearby buildings or infrastructure; proposed maximum height of bonfire; and precautions to protect the crowd.
A number of commentators online and on radio have sought to attack the PSNI for failing to take action. I am not a legal expert but I am fairly certain that the PSNI have no responsibility to remove bonfires. They have a duty to protect those doing so.
Responsibility for bonfires cuts across local councils, the PSNI, the landowners, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).
When no single body is responsible for taking difficult decisions, then decision-making tends to be avoided and that is what has happened, year after year.
We need a single body to be responsible for bonfire rules and that should be a bonfire commission.
Arnold Carton, Belfast BT6