Green Party Deputy Leader Lesley Veronica said: "What we have seen at Drumcree is a failure of politics, a failure of process, and most importantly, a failure to properly listen to the people who have lived with the consequences of this dispute for decades.
Nearly thirty years after the Good Friday Agreement, we should not be reopening the same wounds; we should build on the peace process and deliver institutional change that protects people in a settlement based on human rights and justice for all.”
Belfast City Council group leader Cllr Brian Smyth said: "There is now a clear case for independent international mediation, involving people with no stake in our internal politics but real, hard-won experience of resolving conflicts every bit as entrenched as ours elsewhere.
The people of the Garvaghy Road have been badly served by institutions and political parties that have used them as bargaining chips.
Drumcree is a symptom of a bigger problem. Nearly three decades into peace, we have still never agreed a comprehensive mechanism for dealing with our past. Until we do, the same flashpoints will keep reopening, again and again.
Northern Ireland deserves better than repeatedly returning to the unresolved fights of the 1990s. We need independent mediation, institutions that function, and honesty about our shared past. Nothing less will stop us coming back here again."
ENDS