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Cherry picker used to put up flags at interface

‘PROVOCATIVE ACT’: A cherry picker is used to put up loyalist flags at Twaddell this week
‘PROVOCATIVE ACT’: A cherry picker is used to put up loyalist flags at Twaddell this week ‘PROVOCATIVE ACT’: A cherry picker is used to put up loyalist flags at Twaddell this week

LOYALISTS have used a cherry picker to put up flags at a north Belfast interface.

The flags were erected on lampposts close to the loyalist protest camp at Twaddell Avenue earlier this week a short distance from police lines.

The site is just yards from Catholic-owned business and homes in Ardoyne.

Film footage posted on social media sites showed several men using a cherry picker to put up the loyalist flags.

The development comes almost a year to the day since police said they would treat attempts to raise loyalist flags on a mixed section of the Ormeau Road in south Belfast as a breach of the peace.

The move came after Sinn Féin assembly member Alex Maskey said officers who watched flags being put up in the area had "brought themselves into disrepute”.

Loyalists have held almost daily protests in the area since Orangemen were banned by the Parades Commission from returning from a July 12 demonstration in 2013.

A spokesman for Sinn Féin said the “erection of these flags is a highly provocative act, particularly at this time of the year and is designed to intimidate local residents.”

He said a resolution to the parade disputes will only be reached through dialogue.

PSNI Chief Superintendent Nigel Grimshaw said the “removal of flags is not the responsibility of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and police will only act to remove flags where there are substantial risks to public safety”.

He added that police support “principles of engagement between local communities” to prevent potential disorder.