Council weighs up Orange Lodge parade application

The parade would celebrate the opening of a new lodge

A council committee is to decide whether a parade to mark the opening of an Orange Lodge in Stonehaven should go ahead.

Members of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland intend to march from the town hall to Dunnottar Cemetery on 16 March.

The notice of procession application sent to the local authority states that about 200 people are likely to take part.

A petition, calling for the event to be stopped, is circulating online.

Aberdeenshire Council's Kincardine and Mearns area committee will meet on 5 March to consider the notice.

Members will decide whether to allow the parade to proceed, with or without conditions, or to prohibit the procession and state their reasons for doing so.

The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland said the parade would celebrate the opening of its new lodge and provide an opportunity for members to "remember those many covenanters in Stonehaven who were tortured and murdered for their reformed faith".

A petition has described the parade as "sectarian" while calling for it to be stopped.

The event would start at Stonehaven town hall

According to council papers, all participants in the parade "will be dressed formally and controlled by fully-briefed Orange Institution Marshalls".

The event will be attended by the Pride of the Rock Flute Band from Dumbarton.

David Walters, executive officer at the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, said the event would cause some disruption but that it would be no different to that of other processions.

Mr Walters rejected accusations of "anti-Catholic and anti-Irish hostility" made against the organisation by those objecting to the parade.

He told BBC Scotland: "This is usually the allegation that is posted against us without any evidence to suggest that is the case.

"We're a very peaceful organisation, all of our members conduct themselves in the proper manner."

Stonehaven resident Neil Young launched a petition calling for the event to be stopped

'Threatening and intimidatory'

Stonehaven resident Neil Young set up the petition calling for the parade to be stopped.

He said: "The Orange Order might like to present itself as a group of jolly, cultural traditionalists who are exercising their rights and their freedom of movement but what they are really about is intimidation, threats, prejudice and really trying to keep people down who are not like them.

"Their very presence in this town, or anywhere else, will be threatening and intimidatory."

He said there had already been a "strong response" from people in Stonehaven.

"It's a lovely, inclusive, welcoming and friendly town and we want to keep it that way," he said.