Sinn Fein '˜upping the ante' with bonfire materials council motion

The Ulster Unionist councillor was commenting ahead of a special meeting of Belfast City Council on Wednesday night (August 2) when a vote will be taken on whether material should be seized if deemed necessary.

With unionists in a minority in the council chamber, the proposal is expected to receive the necessary backing for it to be passed.

Although the current bonfire tensions are centred on a small number of nationalist ‘anti internment’ later this month, the motion, if passed, could affect the large number of annual loyalist bonfires.

Cllr Rodgers denied claims the motion was a proposal to revert to a previous policy, and said: “Sinn Fein are trying to bring into local government what is happening up at Stormont. They don’t want to see stability – they are not interested in a successful Northern Ireland – whether that’s at the Executive at Stormont or in the 11 district councils.

“It just goes from bad to worse. We all know what their agenda is. I’m a great believer that we can work through things without putting motions down, but they see things differently. This is all about politicking and electioneering. It started off with the parades issue, then the flag issues was brought in and now we have the bonfires.”

In a statement at the time the motion was made public, Sinn Fein councillor Jim McVeigh said: “These bonfires are a threat to life and to property. No bonfire is a safe bonfire.”

Cllr Rodgers said the proposal was intended to be divisive.

“Sinn Fein are upping the ante. We will not be sitting back and allowing them to destroy Belfast City Council and the capital city of Northern Ireland, Belfast, They want to see unionists fighting unionists, Protestants fighting Protestants and loyalists fighting loyalists, but that is not going to happen,” he said.

Alliance councillor Michael Long said his party was supporting the Sinn Fein motion as it was reinstating the policy that was in place until a few weeks ago.

He said: “We don’t have any issues with it. Basically that is what the existing policy was until last week when the unionists decided they didn’t want the [council] officers to continue with their existing policy, which is to remove the material from various sites if there are health and safety issues or anything else.”

Cllr Long added: “I must admit I have been quite shocked that they’ve treated this as a major change or departure when it is exactly the policy the council has operated for the last number of years in terms of removing material.

“The only reason we are having the meeting [on Wednesday] is because the unionists decided to change their position last week in terms of bonfires.”

Ahead of last month’s Eleventh Night celebrations the council was granted a High Court injunction preventing more materials being added to bonfires at four sites in the east of the city.

The DUP did not wish to comment ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, other than to say: “Discussions are ongoing within our Belfast City Council group.”