Demand for meeting on flashpoint parades
The SDLP has urged the Parades Commission to meet First Ministers Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness to help prevent a surge in flashpoint marches.
The party revealed it held private talks with the Commission in the week before Easter to demand it “stand strong” in the face of a new system for dealing with contentious marches involving its abolition.
SDLP justice spokesman Alex Attwood said: “We believe in the situation which is developing is the potential for areas which have been quiet for years to become contentious again and we told the Commission they should meet the First Ministers to ensure that people do not lose the run of themselves in the period ahead.”
Ahead of the formal publication of new parading proposals, the Orange Order said it understood the new law will abolish the Commission “which had been a major part of the parades problem over the past few years.”
“We will now study (these proposals) carefully and work through the detail to consider its practical implications,” a statement added.
