SUPPORTERS of All Under One Banner (AUOB) might be forgiven for developing a touch of paranoia in recent months, as local authorities have done their worst to try and disrupt the group’s hugely successful marches and rallies for independence.
South Ayrshire Council has become the latest authority to try to impose last-minute conditions on AUOB, which intends to march through Ayr on Saturday, July 6.
Readers will recall that Glasgow City Council ordered a last-minute change of route, which resulted in AUOB organiser Manny Singh being reported to the Procurator Fiscal for the march going ahead as planned. And Argyll and Bute Council climbed down at the last minute after trying to impose financial conditions on the march in Oban earlier this month.
WATCH: Thousands on the march at AUOB's Oban indy rally
Scottish Borders Council worked well with AUOB and it was not their fault that screws were on the road as Yes Bikers rode into Galashiels – allegedly put there by saboteurs.
READ MORE: Yes Bikers victims of ‘sabotage bid’ at AUOB march
In Ayr, AUOB was working closely with local independence activists and had negotiated with South Ayrshire Council and Police Scotland over the route of the march and the venue for the rally at Low Green.
Now the council has told AUOB it must pay a fee for use of Low Green and get both a licence and public liability insurance for the venue.
AUOB has written to the council complaining about the last-minute impositions.
They wrote: “We must state that at no previous point has it been intimated to us that we had to pay any sort of fee to use Low Green, nor were we told we had to have public liability insurance or seek a public entertainment licence in order to use Low Green.
“Thus with just under two weeks to go, being presented with this information is not only procedurally unacceptable for AUOB as an organisation, we must state that we will not be complying with any of these demands and will either be rallying at Low Green as agreed with the council and Police Scotland, or we will be forced to make last-minute changes to the route and assembly/rally sites we will use on the day.”
Regarding insurance, AUOB said: “On this point we must state that over the last five years we have not held Public Liability Insurance, yet have successfully marched and rallied across Scotland in a broad variety of locations as a result of close co-operation with the respective local authorities, and never once have we faced this obstacle regarding not holding such insurance as it is not legally mandatory but only recommended and advisable.”
AUOB assured The National that the march will go ahead in Ayr on July 6.
The council has been approached for comment and it will be posted online as soon as it is received.
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