THE Orange Order have withdrawn their plan to march in Glasgow tomorrow.

Glasgow City Council have confirmed that the Order will not parade after city chiefs ruled that the walk would not be allowed to go past St Alphonsus’ Church in Calton.

It came after Police Scotland Superintendent John McBride claimed riot police would be pulled in from all over Scotland to combat a major counter-protest.

Online groups had called for action to defend the church following ugly scenes on July 7, when priest Canon Tom White was allegedly attacked during the annual Boyne march.

A spokesman for the council said: “Yesterday’s Public Processions Committee imposed a new route and start time on a march by Orange and Purple District 37, due to take place this Saturday.

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“The organiser has now informed the council that it no longer intends to go ahead with the event and the procession has been withdrawn entirely.”

Yesterday, the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland accused the council of discrimination.

A statement said: “We are extremely concerned at the decision today to re-route a parade and effectively ban us from certain streets. 

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“It is discrimination in its purest form.  Glasgow City Council has now established the first ‘no-go zones’ in Glasgow based purely on your religion.

“We offered numerous concessions, including moving the parade to a different day, continued discussion and dialogue, and we identified the times of services at St Alphonsus Church and offered to move the time of the parade to ensure that we avoided those services.  All of this was rejected. 

“We were offered no concessions or negotiations in return.

“Instead we now have entire streets in Glasgow closed off at the request of one religion over another.”

That came despite Ken Andrew, chair of the city’s public processions committee, confirming that there is not a blanket ban on the Order taking the route past the church, on Stevenson Street.

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The committee decided that the Order would have to change its proposed route tomorrow starting in Tullis Street and going through Main Street, MacKeith Street, James Street, The Green, Newhall Street, Dunn Street, London Road, Bridgton Cross, James Street, MacKeith Street, Main Street and Tullis Street.

However, the Order will not now march on that route tomorrow.

The decision to restrict the parade to those streets came after Superintendent McBride said: “The intelligence does indicate that there is a request from a group who has called for ‘any other like-minded individuals’ to attend. It invites certain elements of society who potentially see this as an opportunity to cause disorder.

“If this parade was allowed to go ahead it would be specially trained public processions officers that were involved. In your mind’s eye think of riot police without the helmets. They would ensure that any unsavoury element of protest or counter protest would not lead to disorder. It would be at least five times the usual number of officers.”