The Northern Ireland Parades Commission has accepted a revised route for tomorrow's controversial Whiterock Orange Order march through west Belfast.
Under the terms of the last-minute plan, Loyalist bands will peel away from the main parade and join up again at a non-contentious part of the route but the parade will proceed down the nationalist part of the Springfield Road.
But Springfield residents spokeswoman Ms Frances McAuley accused the Commission of bowing to RUC pressure to allow the parade to go-ahead. She added that tension was reaching breaking point in her community.
"Unless a miracle happens and the whole thing is re-routed, we will be having a massive protest here tomorrow. People are recognising Springfield is on a par with Drumcree and the Ormeau Road."
The Commission’s original decision angered the Orange Order because it prevented them from marching down the staunchly loyalist Ainsworth Avenue, this will now be allowed but the bands will be required to take a different route.
Recent Whiterock parades have seen clashes between loyalists and republican protesters, and last year a loyalist paramilitary colour party twice joined the parade, in contravention of a Parades Commission order.
Meanwhile, hopes of a deal in Derry faded when the Orange Order refused to take part in talks with the nationalist Bogside Residents Group in relation to the Twelfth of July celebrations in the city.
The city's Grand Master Mr Alan Lindsay said that such discussions were against the Order's policy but he confirmed that they were in negotiations with the City Centre Initiative, organised by business people.
The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Dr Alastair Dunlop, appealed to the community to show restraint in the weeks ahead.
He said that the refusal of the IRA to move on decommissioning had deepened the crisis.
"Over the next few weeks all sections of the community face a very difficult time. During recent inter-community conflict the police were once again caught in the middle.
"There is clearly deep-seated mistrust between communities and lack of appreciation of each other's difficulties," he said.
The Church of Ireland Primate Robin Eames, after meeting the Parades Commission, called on loyalist paramilitaries not to use the "cloak of protest" as an excuse for violence.
"If this province is to be spared widespread disorder, no excuse and no encouragement by word or act must be given to those all too ready to justify or even excuse violence at this time," he said.
PA