A council which has deferred discussing bonfires until September spent almost £42,000 last summer on repair, protection and clean-up costs at the sites.
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council's spending included nearly £7,500 in the Craigyhill estate in Larne where a bonfire reached a height of over 200ft to attempt a "world record".
Almost £9,000 was spent in the town's Antiville area where a bonfire was dismantled following the death of a man who fell from the pyre.
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The figures emerge following unionist parties last week deferring a special council meeting called to adopt legal advice on bonfires built on the local authority's land.
The Alliance Party branded the delay "unbelievable" and warned it could place the council in "legal jeopardy".
But TUV said bonfire management is a "work in progress" and questioned the timing of the meeting, just weeks before the Eleventh Night.
A total of £41,794 was spent on repair, protection and clean-up costs for bonfire sites in the council area last summer - an almost 50% increase on the previous year.
Loyalist bonfires in July across 14 locations in the borough accounted for most of the costs, while £1,261 was spent cleaning up after an August republican bonfire in Ballymena.
The highest spend was £8,719 in the Antiville area of Larne, where a bonfire was dismantled after 36-year-old bonfire builder John Steele died following a fall from the structure.
Craigyhill had the second-largest council spend with £2,345 on preparations such as protecting properties and £5,071 on clean-up costs, according to a Freedom of Information response to Belfast Live.
Alliance councillor Aaron Skinner said: "Alliance supports safe and respectful displays of culture.
"However, at a time when people are being forced to choose to heat their homes or feed their families while struggling from one bill to another, it beggars belief so much public money is being spent cleaning up after bonfires across the local area, especially given last week’s actions by some councillors to kick the can down the road in terms of bonfire management in Mid and East Antrim.
"Alliance does not want to ban bonfires but regulation is clearly needed. Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, along with many other public bodies, is facing financial pressures.
"The irony will not be lost on ratepayers that many of those same councillors who will be the first to complain about lack of council spending are the same who did not vote to regulate costly bonfires."
The council meeting last week, called by Alliance, was due to discuss legal advice the local authority received several months ago around potential public liability over bonfires built on its land.
It is believed councillors are considering whether to state clearly it does not consent to bonfires on its land, in a bid to avoid possible liability for any issues which arise.
Mr Skinner hit out at the deferral of the meeting, warning that councillors and the local authority were being exposed to "potential legal jeopardy, while putting members of the public's lives at risk".
TUV councillor Timothy Gaston said the issue of bonfire management was a "work in progress" and questioned the timing of the meeting.
"Now that the council election is out of the way, Alliance has once again showed it is no friend to unionism," he told the Irish News.
The council did not respond to requests for a comment about the meeting.
In a previous statement, a spokesman said: "Mid and East Antrim Borough Council works closely with relevant statutory partners and the community in relation to bonfires throughout the area.
"Council has developed a Cultural Celebrations Working Group with the aim of strengthening partnerships between local community leaders and statutory partners to encourage safe and responsible cultural celebrations."
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