A democratic Unionist Party delegation told the RUC Chief Constable yesterday that the Parades Commission's decision to reroute this evening's Tour of the North parade in Belfast would not be tolerated in relation to future parades.
The party secretary, Mr Nigel Dodds, said security decisions had now been taken out of the hands of the RUC Chief Constable and were being made by "a quango of people who are responding to threats of violence".
The Parades Commission had now become very much part of the problem rather than part of the solution, he said.
Mr Dodds and Mr Ian Paisley jnr relayed what they said was the outrage of the ordinary Protestants over the decision on the parade in north Belfast after attending a meeting with Mr Ronnie Flanagan at RUC headquarters in the city.
They told the Chief Constable they would do everything to ensure the parade remained trouble-free. But they stressed the concern of the Protestant community that the decision represented the "thin end of the wedge" and that the same decision could be made regarding other Orange parades.
"We warned him that would simply not tolerated by the vast majority of the Protestant and unionist community," said Mr Dodds.
"I think that people are simply saying to themselves `we have been driven back and back and back' in terms of parades.
"They have seen the Parades Commission set up, which is an unelected body full of political appointees of Mo Mowlam, who are unaccountable to anybody," said Mr Dodds.
"This unelected body is making decisions in relation to fundamental rights of Orangemen and others to walk for a very short period of time in a lawful and dignified way on the queen's highway. People are saying it is simply not acceptable that this sort of group should make this sort of decision."
On the Drumcree parade, Mr Dodds said it would be "very disturbing indeed" if this was the attitude the Parades Commission was going to take, backed up the RUC Chief Constable.
The decision to reroute the Tour of the North parade should not be used as a precedent, he said.
In relation to the Orange Order's refusal to talk to the Parades Commission, he said he was not aware of any plans to change that policy. The decision regarding the Tour of the North parade, had made that possibility even more remote, said Mr Dodds.