The 'staggering' cost to the public purse cleaning-up after 'Hatefest' and the 12th of July bonfires.

Much of the money was spent on boarding up Housing Executive properties to protect them from the flames and heat 

More than half-a-million pounds of the bill was incurred by the Housing Executive (Image: Justin Kernoghan/Belfast Live) 

                   21st June, 2022. 

Bonfires in Northern Ireland have cost the public more than £800,000 in clean-up, repair and protection bills in the past three years.

The scale of the spending by councils and other public bodies to address damage from summer bonfires is revealed in figures obtained by Belfast Live.

More than half-a-million pounds of the bill was incurred by the Housing Executive - including almost £214,000 boarding up properties to protect them from the flames and heat.

Road repairs since 2019 cost Stormont's Department for Infrastructure more than £45,000 of taxpayers' cash, with officials called upon to clean up dozens of sites each year.

Street-cleaning, staffing, equipment such as diggers, tractors and skips, and the re-seeding of grass were among the costs incurred by the public bodies.

Scroll down for bonfire clean-up and repair costs by council area

In total more than £809,000 was spent between 2019 and 2021 on clean-up and repairs associated with summer bonfires, according to records obtained through Freedom of Information requests.

But the full extent of the spending is unknown as some councils provided no information or gave incomplete statistics.

The figures also cover a period when many bonfires across Northern Ireland were either cancelled or scaled back due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The region's largest local authority, Belfast City Council, was unable to give full statistics for 2019-21 but it has previously said clean-up and repair costs for 2013-16 were around £120,000 - an average of about £30,000 a year.

The vast majority of costs were identified as relating to July's loyalist Eleventh Night bonfires, although some spending was incurred due to so-called anti-internment bonfires in nationalist areas in August.

SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan, the party's communities spokesperson, described the costs as "absolutely staggering".

He said: "While there will be clean-up costs associated with any major event taking place in the north, hundreds of thousands spent boarding up people's properties should not have been allowed to become the norm."

The Foyle MLA said he accepted everyone should be able to celebrate their culture and traditions but added: "It should be in a way that causes no harm to the environment or the people and community around them."

"At a time when people are dealing with a costs crisis and public services are stretched to the limit we really cannot afford to be shelling out these sums to clean up after bonfires of any description," he said.

Belfast Alliance councillor Emmet McDonough-Brown said: "The organisers of bonfires and other displays have a leadership role to play in minimising the cost to the public purse, particularly in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.

"To do so while working with the relevant statutory agencies would show responsibility, while garnering public support."

A Sinn Féin spokesman expressed concern about the costs involved, adding: "If the law is being broken the relevant statutory bodies have a duty to act and deal with unacceptable bonfires."

The Housing Executive spent £339,803 on the removal of bonfire debris and re-seeding grass, £213,565 on protection measures such as boarding up properties and securing fencing, and £16,697 on clean-up and repair bills.

The housing body said it never gives permission for bonfires to be built on its land and works to "reduce the negative impacts" by securing properties.

A spokesman said: "We recognise that bonfires are traditional events and we work with and support communities to mark cultural celebrations in a positive way.

"We are happy that some of our local communities are moving away from bonfires to more environmentally friendly beacons this summer."

While many bonfires in Northern Ireland pass off without major incident, some over the years have caused safety concerns due to their height and proximity to nearby homes.

In 2016, houses in West Belfast's Shankill area were gutted after their roofs caught alight near an Eleventh Night bonfire.

In February it emerged a Belfast City Council internal report had warned the local authority risks being held liable for nuisance, damage or injury caused by bonfires built on its land.

Last December, Stormont published a long-delayed report on tackling flags and bonfires disputes, but no action plan was agreed on implementing any of its recommendations. 

With many thanks to: Belfast Live and Brendan Hughes Politicial reporter for the original publication. 

Follow these links to find out more on this story: Pound Shop lawyer Jamie Bryson Loses Another Appeal Over Belfast Bonfire Legal Challenge Ruling

The 'staggering' cost to the public for cleaning-up after bonfires is shocking