The PSNI Chief Constable, Mr Hugh Orde, plans to mount a lower-key security operation at Drumcree this year as Portadown Orangemen appeal the Parades Commission's decision banning them from marching down Garvaghy Road on Sunday. Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor, reports.
Mr Orde in his annual report published yesterday noted how last year's peaceful Drumcree and relatively calm summer had allowed his officers to concentrate more on paramilitary and ordinary crime. He said he was confident that this Sunday's Drumcree would be equally peaceful.
The PSNI and British army security operation would be smaller than last year. "We have done a lot of work with the Orange Order. We have done a lot of planning, and I am confident it will be a peaceful event like it was last year," the Chief Constable told The Irish Times.
"There will be sufficient police resources to deal with anything that should arise. But I think you will see a lower-profile Drumcree than you saw last year, and hopefully we will build on that next year," he added.
Meanwhile, the Portadown Orangemen have lodged an appeal with the Parades Commission urging it to reverse its decision.
The commission banned the parade on a number of grounds, but chiefly because it could cause community turmoil and because the Portadown District still refused to engage in direct dialogue with the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition.
However, the commission commended the Portadown District for making "creative" efforts to find a resolution to the issue and for engaging with it, an action which reportedly prompted censure on the district from the Orange Order's ruling body, its Grand Lodge.
The commission was also critical of the Garvaghy group for refusing to attend a commission-sponsored mediation event in South Africa, which the Portadown District did attend.
Mr David Jones, spokesman for the Portadown District, said the commission reversed its decision banning last Sunday's Orange Order Whiterock parade because the North and West Belfast Parades Forum, some of whose members are Orangemen, had dealt directly with the nationalist residents' group on the Springfield Road.
"But we in Portadown believe we have gone a lot further in attempting to resolve the dispute, which is why we have now asked the commission to review and reverse its decision," said Mr Jones.
He agreed that the Portadown District still had not engaged directly with the Garvaghy group, but added that it had participated in "proximity" talks with the Garvaghy Coalition and was involved in a continuing exchange of correspondence with the group.
"The only thing the Garvaghy Road group can hang their hat on is that we won't meet them face-to-face. But that was never a requirement of the commission. It is time the Garvaghy group was taken out of their cosy cocoon and woke up to the real world.
"They should no longer be able to place a veto on progress by simply sitting back and repeatedly stating there must be face-to-face talks," Mr Jones said.
Mr Orde in his annual report said that in the year 2003-2004 overall crime figures were down by 10.2 per cent and overall clearance rates up by 4.4 per cent.
This meant there were 14,000 fewer victims of crime last year.
Cork-born Ms Sinead McSweeney, who was appointed head of the PSNI press office in May and who was previously press officer for the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, took up her new role this week.