Tyres amnesty suggested for Twelfth bonfires

He made the suggestion during Tuesday’s discussion at Council’s Environmental Services Committee meeting when it was revealed that Ballymoney had the most complaints regarding bonfires this year.

Cllr McLean said: “Ballymoney still has some issues and these tyres just seem to appear because some people see it as a free chance to get rid of a lot of stuff they they don’t want to pay to get rid of. Maybe we should have an amnesty for tyres to stop them being dumped on bonfires.”

He added that he didn’t like seeing “Ballymoney being knocked” because it had the largest number of complaints. He said that the problems arose at certain bonfires because local people were not involved in constructing them.

“When you get local people, they are more inclined to take a look at what they are doing. There has been a lot of good work done and we shouldn’t knock ourselves.”

Cllr Russell Watton said that the amnesty was a good idea as we “don’t want a monstrosity with tyres like the one in Belfast”. He added that there are “fly boys who chance their arms and throw tyres onto bonfires as they think it’s an opportunity to get rid of them”.

He praised the progress which had been made in the last five years but challenged Unionist councillors to do more than “call for leadership”.

“There are a lot of Unionist councillors that you woud never see near a bonfire. If some of us can do it, all of us can do it,” he said, adding that he had visited four bonfires on the Eleventh Night which had no tyres on them.