Questions over how often parades commissioners on up to £50k for one day per week made 'sloppy' decisions
The Parades Commission needs to “come clean” on how common the processes used in quashed judgement on Drumcree were, and there is no basis to say this was an isolated case, a TUV MLA has said.
Timothy Gaston’s comments come amid growing pressure on the parading quango – as the UUP leader Jon Burrows joined calls for the commissioners to quit following a damning case in the High Court.
A judge said he had “no hesitation” in making the ruling – and that to ensure public confidence in the event of “shortcuts” and “sloppy procedures” it was important the details were placed in the public domain.
Mr Justice MicAlinden said it was “a case which does not stand up to any scrutiny at all”.
A fresh application will now be needed if the Orange Order wish to complete the parade which was first stopped in 1998.
The Parades Commission chair Evelyn Collins gets a salary of between £50,000 – £55,000 per year for “one to two days per week” of work.
The other five commissioners earn £20,000 -£25,000 and “are expected to devote approximately one day per week to Commission business over the course of a year, with a proportionately greater commitment required during the period from April to August”.
In court this week it emerged that one of the commissioners, Mr Billy Gamble, had described mediation over the dispute as a “non-starter” – and sought to exclude references to mediation so as not to “give them [the Orange Order] an angle” to “keep prodding” the Commission.
Not all six members of the public authority had signed off on the final determination before it was issued last month.
North Antrim MLA Mr Gaston told the News Letter: “I have heard repeated claims over the past 24 hours that the Drumcree determination overturned by the High Court yesterday was just one isolated case.
“The reality is that no one has any basis to say that. We only know about the disgraceful way in which the Parades Commission made the Drumcree decision because a court compelled disclosure of the documents.
“The Commission now needs to come clean with the public and reveal how often this decision-making process — which has been found to be unlawful — was used in other cases.
“To that end, I have today written to the Chair of the Parades Commission”.
In the letter to Professor Evelyn Collins, Mr Gaston said: “You should resign, and if you do not, then you should be removed by the Secretary of State using his statutory powers. This will be pursued by our party in the Assembly and in Parliament by our party leader, Jim Allister KC MP”, he said.
The TUV MLA also requested “urgent confirmation as to whether one of the central flaws identified in the Hynes case — namely, that the determination powers in section 8 of the Public Processions Act 1998 were not being exercised collectively by Commissioners, but rather that determinations were being drafted by the Secretary and Chair without any further requirement for approval by the Commissioners before being issued — has been repeated in any other cases in which determinations were issued during the two years prior to the date of this letter”.
Mr Gaston has asked how many determinations were issued using this process during that period, and for the parades to which they related to be identified.
Jamie Bryson, part of the legal team which brought the case, told the News Letter: “These individuals are paid a significant amount of money, to in essence discharge their functions over WhatsApp or reflect on the views of anonymous online trolls.
“This is as appalling an example of maladministration as you will ever see in any public body. It is jaw dropping at times.
“To be paid this amount of money, almost in some cases as much or more as nurses or teachers working full time, to conduct themselves in the manner they have is unforgivable”. During the last financial year ( 2025-26), the PCNI itself said that one of the main financial and reputational risks it faced included “procedures not being followed”.
In his annual report, the organisation’s secretary Ralph Roche said that “the full Commission has a responsibility to lead on determining and evaluating the Commission’s risks”.
It appears that the Commissioners did not identify at that stage any risks associated with their own processes, described by the High Court judge as “sloppy”.