The SDLP is set to table a parliamentary question in the House of
Commons asking the British Government how much it cost to police a
parade staged by the Whitewell Defenders Flute Band last weekend.
The march caused controversy when it made its way down a stretch of the nationalist section of the Whitwell Road.
The SDLP has revealed that it now intends to table a question on the costs in Westminster through MP Eddie McGrady.
"I will be asking to look at the video evidence of Saturday's
events and I will also be asking the Police Ombudsman to investigate
this as well," said Pat Convery.
"In my opinion the policing operation was totally unacceptable and
the senior officers on duty must be held to account for their actions
on the day. It was only the restraint of the local nationalist
community that let this whole episode go by without serious
disturbances or injury and it certainly wasn't without considerable
verbal provocation."
A spokesperson for the SDLP said they would not be letting the matter drop.
"Questions need to be asked and our members will be asking how much
this parade cost through Westminster, the DPP and the Policing Board,"
the spokesperson said.
Last July in Ardoyne, the PSNI operation of policing an Orange
Order parade, which marched past Ardoyne Shops and hemmed in
nationalists behind barriers of steel, cost over a quarter of a million
pounds.
The £225,000 was just for the PSNI and did not include the British Army operation.
At the time the PSNI said it didn't cost individual parades, but
the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin confirmed the cost in a
letter to community groups in December 2004.
When asked by the North Belfast News, the PSNI refused to provide
the cost of Saturday's loyalist parade and instead offered the figures
for a number of parades that took place across the North of Ireland
over a four and a half month period.
From April 1 until August 14 2004 the PSNI's cost for policing
parades amounted to £5.5 million. For the same period in 2003, that
figure was £5.2million.
