Alliance Councillor Emmet McDonough Brown has said the UUP’s desperation to avoid providing long lasting solutions to bonfires is fully on display, as the party has yet again begun playing the blame game in a bid to distract attention from its Councillors’ actions.
Emmet said that despite the UUP, along with other Unionist parties, backing plans for the Department for Infrastructure to take action over the Walkway bonfire in East Belfast – as shown in a joint statement released earlier this week – the Party had “run away from taking the tough actions needed” to support residents.
He added: “Jim Rodgers has been taking great delight in blaming the Council, Alliance or anyone else he can think of to divert attention away from his actions. Yet while Jim is on record as supporting DFI taking action, I must question how he thought that action was going to unfold and why he was so determined to leave local residents to fend for themselves.
“There are many relieved people who had been preparing for an uneasy night tonight where it not for this intervention. With the needs of the community in mind, and earlier agreements in place, I’m still confused as to why Jim and his colleagues saw fit to turn their backs on them.
“And while he continues to shout on the airwaves about Unionists working together to achieve this or that and their combined opposition to what has unfolded, I would remind him that the MP for East Belfast this morning confirmed his support for all action taken, including the injunction.”