Mr David Jones, spokesman for the Portadown District of the Orange Order, said last night that they would not be responding to a suggestion by the Orange Order Grand Master, Mr Robert Saulters, that the Order should talk to the parades commission and to residents groups.
Mr Saulters suggested that where there were disputed parades that perhaps Orangemen should "call Sinn Fein's bluff" and enter into discussions with residents groups.
Mr Jones said that it was not for Portadown District to respond to Mr Saulters' suggestion that the matter would be addressed "at House of Orange" level.
Meanwhile, the Parades Commission announced the re-routing of 26 Orange parades, and one by a residents' group, during the week of July 12th, including another march the Portadown Orangemen have applied for next Sunday down the Garvaghy Road.
Among those being rerouted are marches in familiar flash-point areas such as Bellaghy, Co Derry, Dunloy, Co Antrim, Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh, and Castlewellan, Co Down. In Derry the Orangemen will only be allowed to walk around part of the Diamond in the city centre. A meeting of Belfast Orange leaders last night was due to discuss the nature of the organisation's protest against the Parades Commission's decision to ban a march down the nationalist Lower Ormeau Road on July 12th.