Tuesday March 10th 2026
Musselburgh residents were affected by flags which appeared in town during parade
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
Parade organisers have been warned they could be banned from East Lothian if they do not follow the rules under a new policy covering future events.
The Public Processions and Parades Policy gives East Lothian Council officers the right to introduce special conditions or even bar events if they feel it could put public safety at risk.
It comes after a parade in Musselburgh last October saw Union Jacks and Saltires attached to lamp posts across the town centre without permission.
The flags were later identified as being put up as part of the annual William Buchanan Memorial Parade organised by Musselburgh True Defenders and were taken down after the event.
However a meeting of East Lothian Council’s Labour administration cabinet this week heard the sudden appearance of the flags had left some residents feeling threatened.
Musselburgh ward councillor Shona McIntosh told the meeting the day after the parade she was inundated with message from people upset by the flags.
She said: “My email inbox was full of messages from people from lots of different backgrounds who had been made to feel unsafe in their town because of these flags being left and it took a few days to get them all down.
“What will this policy do to ensure there is accountability to parade organisers who leave townsfolk feeling unsafe in their own homes and will we be able to be assured that will not happen again,”
The meeting was told that the parade organisers had gone through the council’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG) process ahead of the event, but an officer told councillors: “They had not informed us they were going to be putting any flags or anything up around East Lothian or the route of the march.
“As soon as we were made aware of it we contacted the organisers to have the flags taken down. As part of the SAG process next year we will make sure they are alerted to the policy and are not allowed to put any flags or anything up on our road structures”
After being told the parade is expected to return this year, Councillor McIntosh asked if another breach would lead to the parade being banned from returning again.
She was told: “We have powers to risk assess each individual parade on a case by case basis.
“If they have breached any conditions the previous year, we can look at that. We can put prohibitions or we can put special conditions on that parade specifically.”
Councillors were told the policy had been established to ensure public processions in East Lothian were managed ‘effectively, appropriately and safely to protect public safety.”
Councillor Colin McGinn welcomed the policy saying: “We all have the right to assembly but with those rights comes responsibilities. With this policy we can tackle issues when things go wrong, as can happen. This is a robust policy which is welcome.”
Councillor John McMillan pointed out references in the policy to ‘static demonstrations’ were also included and asked for more information.
Officers told him: “Static demonstrations are protected by the European Convention of Human Rights. We do get notified about some static demonstrations and we consider those when they come in.
“There are others that can just happen and for those we would liaise with emergency services as we do with all events. If they did happen we would review them the following year and find out who organised them.”
Councillors unanimously approved the new policy.
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