Council says it did not move stolen pallets to bonfire site

A PICTURE circulating on social media does not show Belfast City Council employees moving “stolen” pallets to a bonfire site, the council has confirmed.

The photograph shows three men, two of whom are wearing high-visibility clothing, moving pallets to the Donegall Pass bonfire site.

It caused furore when it was posted on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, as many believed the men were council workers who were “handling stolen goods”.

With their distinctive blue colour and branding, the wooden pallets in the picture can be distinguished as those owned by the company Chep.

The for-hire pallets are used in the firm’s pooling service for retail and industrial supply chains and are not bought and sold.

Yesterday afternoon, Belfast City Council confirmed the men in the photograph are not council workers.

“We have investigated this internally and early indications are that these are not Belfast City Council employees,” a spokesperson said. “The action referred to in the tweet was not sanctioned by Belfast City Council.”

Last year, Chep had to speak out against the burning of their pallets on bonfires in Northern Ireland, after hundreds of them were pictured on pyres in various locations across the city.

“Chep equipment is only ever hired — never sold. The Chep business model involves equipment pooling and our pallets are a valuable asset,” a spokesperson said. “We do not condone using Chep pallets for burning on bonfires, and we work closely with the local authorities and with bonfire liaison officers to recover our pallets from these sites whenever it is safe to do so. We make our best efforts to secure our pallets but also seek to ensure the safety of our people.”

In June last year, Belfast City Council had to hand over hundreds of pallets it was storing for a loyalist bonfire to Chep after the company spoke out and claimed ownership of them.

The following month it was reported that more than £20,000 worth of the Chep pallets were to be burnt on the Lanark Way bonfire in Belfast.

Each of the Chep pallets are said to be worth between £15 and £20 each. THE head of London’s murder squad has said policing alone will not solve the violent crime wave gripping the capital.

Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Wood pledged that his officers would be “lawfully audacious” in stopping the bloodshed, but that they need communities to “step up and say enough’s enough”.

So far this year 62 murders have been recorded by the Metropolitan Police, of which 39 involved knives and 10 guns.

In the first three months of this year 45 murders were recorded, compared with 23 in the first quarter of 2017.

Members of the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee

Warning: Richard Wood