No end to protest at school despite buses

Despite the provision of school buses and one of the quietest loyalist protests yet, no end to the dispute at the Holy Cross …

Despite the provision of school buses and one of the quietest loyalist protests yet, no end to the dispute at the Holy Cross Primary School is in sight.

The First and Deputy First Ministers held a series of meetings yesterday afternoon with elected representatives as well as parents, governors and others from north Belfast but these talks were described by one source as being "essentially a listening exercise".

Residents from the Protestant Glenbryn area are expected to meet Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan later in the week. Last night they attended a meeting chaired by Mr Nigel Dodds, the MP for north Belfast. It is believed a number of representatives of government departments also attended the meeting where a measures such as traffic calming and the installation of CCTV cameras were discussed.

The ongoing talks had prompted some reports to suggest that a resolution to the dispute could be reached by this weekend. Protestant sources yesterday confirmed there was a press blackout in place to protect what they termed sensitive negotiations and said they hoped this would be lifted by Friday.

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Nationalist parents said they were still waiting for the Glenbryn residents to talk to them.

One new development was the provision of two school buses for the first time yesterday morning and afternoon to take parents and children through the Protestant Glenbryn area.

Only a handful used the buses in the morning and although a few more did so in the afternoon, they numbered no more than a dozen.

One parent who took the bus in the afternoon said she was very nervous about doing so and said she believed this was the reason why many more parents had not used it. "If someone throws a stone you have nowhere to go," she said.