ASBESTOS has been found at a loyalist bonfire in west Belfast.
Household waste, including out of date meat and soiled nappies, has been left on the land at Lanark Way off the Shankill Road, over the course of the past month.
A Belfast City Council spokeswoman said: "The land in question is owned privately. We are aware of illegal dumping at this site and are working co-operatively with partners to alleviate the situation."
The Housing Executive described the mess as "disgraceful".
A spokesman said: "We own a small piece of land on this wider waste ground area, which is in private ownership - asbestos has not been dumped on our land.
The spokesman added: "We took immediate steps to remove household debris from our portion of the land and we are working closely with the council, the landowner and the PSNI to resolve this issue. Bollards are already in place to discourage access to our portion of this land."
DUP councillor Frank McCoubrey said the situation had improved since earlier in the month and claimed the material was "left there using a yellow tipper lorry with a cage on it."
He said: "Earlier this month there were incidents of fly tipping on Lanark Way where asbestos, fridges, kitchen rubbish and items which identified a particular house were all dumped.
"I worked with statutory agencies to secure a clean-up of the area but it is simply not acceptable that such dangerous materials should be dumped anywhere."
Mr McCoubrey added: "The collection of material for bonfires is not an excuse to dump general rubbish, and particularly not items which could be potentially dangerous to those who would come in contact with it."
