While considerable progress has been made over the issue of contentious bonfires in recent years, it is not acceptable that materials are being gathered at an unauthorised site in a loyalist part of south-east Belfast almost five months before the Eleventh Night.
Belfast City Council has already removed tyres which were illegally dumped on waste ground at Lismore Street off the Ravenhill Road in recent weeks.
However, pallets have also been stacked at the same location and, as we report today, appear to have been deliberately arranged in a circular shape.
After the events of last summer, it is essential that the authorities pay close attention to all the concerns surrounding bonfires in both loyalist and nationalist districts.
A major operation involving council contractors guarded by police officers was needed to remove some 1,800 tyres which were stored, again illegally, at Lismore Street.
Firefighters had already warned that any blaze started had the potential to spread to adjacent properties in the densely populated neighbourhood, with potentially disastrous consequences.
Some loyalists then attempted to engineer another confrontation over a pyre in the grounds of nearby Avoniel leisure centre, with the entrance of the publicly owned complex barricaded for a period of days in July.
The following month, a number of police officers were injured during serious disturbances at a bonfire in the nationalist New Lodge Road district.
Anti-social elements then fought with each other after police withdrew, with several knife attacks taking place and an 18-year-old man left in a critical condition.
There must be no question of this kind of mayhem being allowed to unfold again this summer across Belfast or anywhere else.
Those who wish to organise bonfires must observe health and safety guidelines and work closely with the relevant statutory bodies.
If they refuse to cooperate, then their materials should be confiscated at an early stage before any threat to property or indeed lives is allowed to develop.
In the past, some unionist politicians regularly suggested that asking bonfire builders to observe the law of the land was somehow undermining loyalist culture.
There have been clear indications that more realistic attitudes are beginning to prevail and it must be hoped that the tensions and violence of last summer will not be repeated in any section of our divided society.
