BELFAST City Council spent £23,302 on the clean-up after this year's Twelfth of July parade in Belfast, it can be revealed.
In response to a Freedom of Information request, Belfast City Council revealed costs of the clean-up from the annual parades over the past five years with this year's Twelfth parades in the city being the highest.
In 2022 the Council spent £23,114.85 on cleaning up after the parade. The cost for 2021 was just £3,178.19 during Covid restrictions and £0.00 in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic when parades did not take place.
In 2019 the cost to the city for cleaning up after the Twelfth parade was £21,198.
Belfast City Council confirmed that street cleaning after the parades is carried out by Council staff and none of it is outsourced.
RUBBISH: Litter left behind after the annual Twelfth July Parades
The area around Sandy Row and the Village in South Belfast has long become a contentious point in the parade with a huge amount of littering of plastic bags, alcohol cans, glass bottles and cardboard littering the surrounding streets. The Orange Order are now in discussions about shortening their route through the city, which is currently around 10 miles long. The proposed changes could see it shortened to a circular four mile march cutting out speeches at the traditional field and finishing much earlier.
Speaking on the cost findings SDLP Councillor Carl Whyte said: "It’s clearly not sustainable that Council should be expected to fork out upwards of £20,000 every year as part of the clean-up operation for the event. We have all seen the pictures of the mess left behind by crowds following the celebrations and Council staff do an incredible job returning the area to normal overnight.
“We need to see the Orange Order take greater responsibility for the actions of those attending their parades and Twelfth of July events and I welcome their acknowledgement of the existing issues and proposals to change the parade route. At a time when budgets are severely stretched Council has numerous things this money could be better spent on.”
