The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
20,000 people expected at Scottish independence march
DUNDEE: Council permits All Under One Banner event
Around 20,000 people are expected to join a march for Scottish independence in Dundee this month.
All Under One Banner, which has held a number of processions across the country, will take to the streets in the city on Saturday August 18.
The event was given the go-ahead by SNP Dundee City Council’s licensing committee yesterday morning, though there was no representative from All Under One Banner at the meeting.
The organisation is a political pressure group that seeks to “march at regular intervals until Scotland is free”.
Committee members did not ask any questions of council officers or the police, with the application waved through on the condition more planning arrangements are set out.
Councillor Stewart Hunter, chairman of the licensing committee, said: “It’s disappointing that the applicant is not here. It would have been useful to ask questions about the event. To their credit, they have moved the date of the march at the request of Police Scotland, after discussions with them.
“The event is approved with the condition that traffic management and stewarding must be put in place.”
Leaving from Baxter Park at 12.45pm, the route will continue down Arbroath Road and down Albert Street before going along King Street towards the McManus museum. From there, it will pass down Reform Street before travelling through the Nethergate and Perth Road, eventually ending at Magdalen Green via Roseangle.
The Tayside Division of Police Scotland estimates that, based on similar events elsewhere in the country, as many as 20,000 people could join the Dundee march.
It will be the fifth march organised by the group, after processions in Glasgow in May, Dumfries and Stirling in June, and Inverness at the end of July.
The Glasgow march attracted around 35,000 people, according to police, with the other events seeing between 15,000 and 10,000 supporters attending.
No trouble has been reported at any of the events.
The rallies come four years after Scotland voted 55% to 45% to remain part of the United Kingdom.