South Lanarkshire Council decide against changes to conditions for marches

Dec 8 2011 Hamilton Advertiser

PROPOSALS to change regulations governing parades and marches in South Lanarkshire have been rejected.

South Lanarkshire Council’s corporate resources committee decided that the current controls were adequate but agreed to keep them under review.

They took the decision following concern that the changes could threaten events such as Lanimer Day and gala days.

However, the result of the three-month consultation on the proposals was described as “astonishing” by anti-Irish racism campaigners Cairde Na hEireann, who have staged marches in Hamilton.

Their spokesman Franny McAdam said: “I find it amazing that the council put forward these proposals which they fail to adopt because some people don’t want them. It makes you wonder who is running the council.”

Strathclyde Police reviewed their procedures regarding the policing of parades and in March asked the council to amend the conditions they imposed in South Lanarkshire.

Among the changes proposed were: ratio of one steward to 10 march participants; better steward training; no band allowed to play before 7.30am or after 9pm; bands to cease playing when approaching and passing places of worship, and organisers to “ensure” that marchers refrain from taking drugs or consuming alcohol during the parade.

During the consultation, 14 meetings were held with interested parties and 333 written responses were received.

Among those to express comment were community councils, councillors, an MSP, gala committees, a Rotary Club and 32 organisations who march in South Lanarkshire.

Only about 10 of those who responded were in favour of the changes.

An internet petition against the proposals was set up and attracted 1300 names. Some of the names on the petition – such as ‘Ian Paisley’ and ‘Archie Strang’, that of the council’s chief executive – were considered “dubious” by officials.

A spokesman for the council said that as the vast majority of organisations and individuals consulted were opposed to any sort of change, the recommendation put to councillors was that the status quo should be maintained.

Finance and corporate resources director Paul Manning said concerns were raised by gala committee and smaller organisations about the condition regarding trained stewards.

There were fears that the proposal would “inhibit smaller community-based organisations from holding certain events”.

Mr Manning also pointed to the “raft” of Human Rights cases relating to rights to march.

“Any change to the conditions could result in increased court actions brought by organisations who consider their human rights have been infringed,” he added.

However, Mr McAdam said Glasgow City Council had adopted new condition on parades and added: “We took part in the consultation and concurred with quite a few of the recommendations on marches. To hear from a journalist that they have not been adopted is quite surprising.

“There are far too many marches as everyone knows and restricting parades to between the hours of 9am and 6pm seems quite reasonable. Some marches are 7am in the morning which are not good for people who are off work at the weekend.”

He added: “This is not a decision that helps the public nor is it a decision made for Strathclyde Police who, in the current economic climate, cannot afford to police all these marches.”

The decision was, however, welcomed by Robert McLean, executive officer of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, who said: “South Lanarkshire Council carried out a very professional consultation. They listened to everyone and are to be congratulated.

“We said at the outset that in 2010 there were 151 parades (in South Lanarkshire) and only two competent objections. We reckoned there was no need for any new policy.”

He said they had agreed to take part with the council in a working group on parade application procedures.

Superintendent Elaine Ferguson of Q Division said they police would wait until they had official confirmation of the council’s decision before commenting.