THE governor of the Apprentice Boys, Mr Alastair Simpson, said yesterday it was impossible to reach agreement with the Bogside Residents' Group (BRG). The group, he said, kept "changing the goal posts".
He said in a BBC radio interview the group insisted on getting agreement on the issue of consent for parades all over Northern Ireland from the Derry negotiations, but this was not possible.
"The consent that they were looking for was from branches" throughout all of Northern Ireland. Unless we gave them that consent, they told us that they were not interested in discussing the parade of the 10th of August in Derry."
Mr Simpson said if an agreement had been reached about Saturday's parade in Derry it could then have been used as a "powerful lever" throughout the rest of Northern Ireland.
After four meetings, he said, they were no closer to reaching an agreement with the Group. "We discussed a vast range of points but this is the point they stuck on," said Mr Simpson adding that the Apprentice Boys had accepted the proposals of the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, but the other side refused to accept them. He hoped negotiations would continue with other groups in the city.
Mr Simpson also said the BRG had "failed" to tell the Apprentice Boys of a planned parade in the city on this Friday night.
"Surely if you are talking about consent the people of The Fountain should have been asked for their consent for this parade to pass through. It is all right for us to have to give consent, but they don't think they have to. That is very dictatorial."
Meanwhile the United Against Bigotry group has called on people to turn out for a march at lunchtime tomorrow from Spencer Road in Derry. It will be addressed by trade union and left wing speakers appealing for working class unity against sectarian demonstrations and sectarian attacks against any section of the community.