THIS week we carry the first pictures of the large pile of asbestos beside a bonfire adjacent to the Westlink. The deadly waste has been the subject of some controversy in recent weeks as the large pile of toxic material is a lethal threat to the many people gathered at the site to build the structure or to drink and socialise there.

The waste – which an Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) source recently told BBCNI could cost a minimum of £100,000 to remove – is being passed between two agencies loath to assume the responsibility and the cost of doing the right thing: the NIEA and Belfast City Council. The landowner is rightly being pressured to take on board their responsibility, but when the job is so big and so crucial it is imperative that one of the statutory agencies – or both – take the bull by the horns and carry out the removal and disposal work as a matter of urgency. Retrieving the owner’s share of the cost can come later.

To say the asbestos is inexpertly secured is an understatement of huge proportions. The large pile – approximately 50ft long by 30ft wide – has had a wire fence placed around it, which of course does nothing to stop the potential spread of loose asbestos in blustery conditions. Black plastic sheeting has been placed over the top of the asbestos, secured by random bits of scrap wood and sandbags. No attempt has been made to seal the asbestos inside its plastic cover. 

It’s another appalling example of how every basic tenet of communal living and social cohesion is thrown out the window when the Lambeg drums and the flute herald every new marching season. Those of us who seek permission to burn hedging in our back gardens, or apply to the planners to put an extra window in our homes, can only look on and shake our heads as every statutory agency maintains an omertà in relation to breaches of their rules and protocols.

The NIEA, local councils and the police are in shameful dereliction of their duty right across the North every summer, and while they may argue that the risk of confrontation outweighs their duty to act, fleeing the field in the face of threats is an embarrassing admission of impotence and only empowers those who would usurp the rule of law.

But the need to balance police and workers’ safety with the duty to exercise authority would not arise if others took the responsibilty that their positions demand. Unionist and loyalist politicians and community workers have the solution to this current asbestos problem – and every other bonfire-related issue – in their hands. They can and should be liaising with the bonfire builders to persuade them to allow public servants to do their duty of protecting us and keeping us safe. Instead, they add fuel to the fire by underpinning the perception that every attempt to intervene at a bonfire is an attack on Protestant culture.

If they only but knew it, that short-sighted cop-out is doing more damage to their own tradition than those they perceive as enemies.