THE report recommending the scrapping of the Parades Commission and a new mediation process for marches is introduced has raised concerns – even before it is published.
As first revealed in the News Letter last month, Lord Ashdown's Strategic Review of Parading is to propose a new system for ruling on contentious parades.
The group's report will be published on Tuesday.
Among the changes recommended would be t
hat the Office of First and Deputy First Minister take on overall responsibility for parading and appoint an arbitration panel to deal with disputes.
Local councils would take initial charge of the process.
Marshals would lodge notice of a parade with them and the local authority would inform interested parties such as the police, public safety and residents.
Before the OFMDFM panel would have to get involved a new mediation process at local level, in which both sides would somehow engage with each other, is understood to be another suggestion.
Amid fresh speculation about the document, Orangemen expressed concern about their members possibly having to get into negotiation situations locally that they may not be experienced enough to tackle.
They said there were those in Orange districts who would find it either impossible to sit face to face with republicans, or would be "deeply unhappy, if the pressure of engaging in a tricky negotiation" was thrust upon them.
News Letter sources have suggested that the Orangemen's fears are unfounded as there is no definitive
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