Portadown Orangemen have indicated they will consider talks with Garvaghy Road residents to resolve the impasse over the annual Drumcree parade.
Orangemen have not walked the mainly nationalist road in Portadown, Co Armagh since 1998 after previous parades resulted in serious violence.
This is despite repeated applications for permission to use the route back to their Orange Hall from Drumcree parish church where they hold a Somme commemoration service in early July each year.
The loyal order has set its face against negotiations with nationalist residents and against dealing with the Parades Commission which rules on contested marches.
However, the Portadown lodge yesterday indicated it was prepared to consider talks under independent chairmanship.
Sources close to the dispute told The Irish Timeslast night the policy shift followed perceptible shifts in local Orange opinion in recent months.
There is no hint yet of any timetable for any direct contact between the two sides in Portadown.
It is understood that a search for an independent chair, probably a figure utterly unconnected with either side from Britain or beyond, has begun.
In a statement yesterday a spokesman for the Portadown District of the Orange Order said: "Portadown District has always been willing to find a solution to the Garvaghy Road problem.
"We have intimated by letter to the Parades Commission that we are willing to enter a mediation process with an independent chairman. No meetings have taken place, but we are awaiting developments."
Garvaghy Road residents said yesterday they were awaiting confirmation.
SDLP Assembly member Dolores Kelly welcomed the development and said dialogue was the only way to settle the Drumcree dispute.
Referring to Orange marchers she said: "For too long they have ignored or attempted to bypass the wishes of the residents of the Garvaghy Road. If they have now seen the error of their position then a move towards dialogue is to be welcomed."
Ms Kelly added: "However, the Garvaghy Road residents group is yet to receive any formal offer from the Orange Order for dialogue and until they do so this suggestion must be treated with a large amount of scepticism.
"It should not be used as a lever to gain any concessions from the Parades Commission or put pressure on the residents.
"Until it is officially confirmed by the Orange Order and arranged with the residents it remains nothing more than another bit of the Orange Order's new-found spin.
"Real substance to any proposals are what the residents require and deserve," Ms Kelly said.