Responding to the news that there will be a new Parades Commission appointment process, Ulster Unionist Councillor and member of the Belfast Parades Forum, Mark Cosgrove said:
“The last few years have been a very difficult period for relationships between the main Loyal Order Parading traditions, the wider Unionist community and the Parades Commission.
“Everyone knows the Commission has a difficult and challenging role to adjudicate through complex competing interests.
“There may be agreement within the Haass talks to replace the Commission, but in the interim period the Ulster Unionist Party will engage positively with the new Commission when they are appointed.
“Whilst I believe there are some fundamental problems with the legislation in the Processions act that the Commission operates under, this is an opportunity for a fresh start.”