Drumcree: Entire Parades Commission must go - 'rearranging the deck chairs' won't restore confidence: UUP
The resignation of a single Parades Commissioner does not go far enough, the rest must go – and the Secretary of State needs to act quickly to restore confidence after last week’s High Court ruling on Drumcree, the UUP has said.
On Friday, Sir Chris Bryant said he will not “jump to conclusions” about the future of the Parades Commission after receiving a letter about how the body intends to restore public confidence in its work.
Councillor Kyle Savage, a member of the Loyal Orders, contrasted the resignation of Commissioner Billy Gamble - who had described mediation on the parade as a "non-starter" in correspondence disclosed to the court – with Portadown District's statement on Friday that it is willing to enter mediation without pre-conditions.
Cllr Kyle Savage said: “Last week established something that should never have needed establishing: that Orangemen are entitled to the same lawful treatment as anyone else. That is all Portadown District ever asked for, and it took a court to secure it.
“One commissioner has now gone, and people in Portadown know exactly why. He wrote privately that mediation on this parade was a non-starter. He had made his mind up before a word was spoken. On Friday, Portadown District said it would sit down and talk, with no conditions attached, directly or through representatives.
“Think about what that tells you. The men who have been refused for twenty-eight years are the ones willing to talk. The man paid to encourage local dialogue had already closed the door.
“That is why this cannot end with one resignation. The Chair says the commissioners will stay and fix the problems they have identified. But the problem here is not a filing error. These commissioners are too far removed from the grassroots communities they make decisions about, and no amount of internal tidying will change that. Rearranging the deck chairs will not restore confidence in this Commission. It will only prolong the damage.
“In all my years as a member of the Loyal Orders, I have not seen a spirit like the one reignited across Portadown this past week. People who had been told for a generation that nothing would ever change have seen that it can. That energy should now be put into dialogue, and Portadown District has already shown the way.
“The Secretary of State should act, and act quickly. Assurances on paper will not be enough. Confidence has to be rebuilt, and it cannot be rebuilt by those who lost it.”