Residents at the centre of the long-running Drum-cree dispute yesterday insisted that any face-to-face talks with Portadown Orange-men must be without any pre-conditions.
In a statement the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition (GRCC) confirmed that they had now received the Orange Order's much-publicised proposals – two weeks after the contentious Drumcree march which passed off peacefully.
The proposals had been sent to the British Prime Minister's chief of staff Jonathan Powell in June and have already received a cool response from the GRCC who say they are similar to those tabled during proximity talks five years ago.
And they repeated that view in a statement issued yesterday (Friday).
"The proposals are not dissimilar to those tabled during proximity talks which took place under the chairmanship of Jonathan Powell in 1998," a GRRC spokesperson said.
"Those proposals did not result in a resolution of the Drumcree issue being reached.
"It will be our intention to reply fully to the correspondence received from Mr Monteith (solicitor for the Order in Portadown) in due course.
"Nevertheless, an onus clearly still lies with the Orange Order in Portadown to state publicly and unequivocally whether or not they are prepared to engage directly with this community without seeking to impose any pre-conditions or pre-determined outcomes."
Portadown Lodge spokesman David Jones said last night: "The same can be said for them. They need not have any pre-conditions. We are not going to comment any further until we receive their reply."
