GLASGOW City Council has set itself on collision course with the Orange Order after insisting it will re-route upcoming parades away from the scene of a hate attack on a priest.

Council leader Cllr Susan Aitken has demanded Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland leaders “step up” and take wider responsibility for anti-Catholic incidents which occur around their parades.

In a robust response to last weekend’s incident in which a Catholic priest was spat at, abused and lunged at by a baton-wielding man, she warned the city has now reached “tipping point” in relation to anti-social behaviour linked to Orange parades.

She called for Orange Lodge leaders to voluntarily agree to reroute planned marches in the area of the east end church at the centre of the incident and avoid what she described as “a local potential flashpoint”.

If they failed, she said the city council would insist on a change of route and warned it is prepared to “strength-test existing laws and our own codes of conduct in relation to preventing horrendous incidents like the attack on Canon Tom White”.

Three Orange Order parades are currently scheduled to take place later this month and in August in the area around Saturday’s sectarian attack.

However, any move to re-route parades is expected to be met with strong resistance from the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, which is fiercely protective of its members’ rights to march along traditional routes.

The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland has not responded to The Herald’s request for comment on the latest development. A member of staff at its Glasgow office said the organisation does not speak to The Herald.

Police are still investigating last Saturday’s incident in which Canon White was targeted while he chatted with parishioners outside St Alphonsus’ Church in the east end. The Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, Jim McHarg later condemned the “bigoted actions” of what he described as a small number of people who had turned up to watch 4500 marchers take part in the County Grand Orange Order Boyne Parade.

However, writing in today’s Agenda section of The Herald, the council leader said the Orange Lodge had to take responsibility. She said: “Official participants may not be involved in sectarian and anti-social incidents around parades but it’s simply not enough to absolve themselves by pointing to hangers-on.

“They need to step up and take wider responsibility for those they attract and refer to as their wider support and networks when it suits. What happens on your watch happens on your watch.”

The incident sparked public outrage and a 75,000 name petition calling for a blanket ban on Orange parades. However, Cllr Aitken stressed that European human rights legislation and Scottish legislation means the council does not have powers to enact a blanket ban. She has now called for MSPs to consider how they can strengthen existing legislation to support councils.

In a series of tweets yesterday, she added that the council is liaising with Police Scotland to find grounds on which future parades may be curbed and that local authority officials have been primed to ensure all the council’s powers are used “to their fullest extent”.

She added that moves are underway to make it easier for members of the public to object to parades and marches via the council website and My Glasgow app.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Responsibility for the regulation of marches and parades rests with local authorities. Each local authority, in consultation with Police Scotland, is in the best position to decide whether a particular event should go ahead and whether any restrictions should be placed on it.

“The Scottish Government supports local authorities in making decisions which achieve the correct balance between the rights of marchers and the rights of the communities affected."

A spokesman for the Catholic Church said: “Clearly, Glasgow City Council are constrained in the steps they can take to curtail parades by legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament. It is however reassuring to note that they will act firmly where they can. Hopefully Police Scotland will support action to control the routing and timing of parades in the light of the recent hateful and unprovoked attack.”