THE All Under One Banner march and rally for independence in Edinburgh on Saturday, October 5, will go ahead after the city council’s licensing sub-committee gave it their approval yesterday.

The National can reveal that All Under One Banner (AUOB), Police Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland and the council came together in a spirit of compromise which has resulted a replacement of the route that was used for last year’s hugely successful event in which 100,000 people marched down the Royal Mile to Holyrood Park.

This year the march will start in Holyrood Park close to the Scottish Parliament and will proceed through the city centre before turning south at George IV Bridge to the Meadows where the rally element of the event will take place. AUOB stated last night that the procession route would be Holyrood Park, Queens Drive, Horse Wynd, Canongate, High Street, Lawmmarket, George IV bridge, Forrest Road, Middle Meadow walk and then The Meadows.

Last year’s march was in jeopardy until the last minute because Historic Environment Scotland did not want the rally to take place on the land in Holyrood Park which it controls.

By reversing the route and holding the rally on the Meadows, which is common good land under the control of the council, that issue is avoided and the Meadows has often been used in the past for political demonstrations.

Older campaigners for independence and devolution will recall the March for Democracy that took place in December 1992 during the European Summit which also ended in a rally at the Meadows which was seen as a major turning point in the quest for self-determination for Scotland and featured speeches by Alex Salmond, Henry McLeish, Jim Wallace, Isobel Lindsay and the late William McIlvanney.

AUOB are fresh from the success of the march and rally in Aberdeen on Saturday which was the largest pro-independence demonstration ever seen in the north-east of Scotland.

Already this year the group have organised their “national tour” of marches and rallies in Glasgow, Galashiels, Oban, Ayr, and Campbeltown with another march organised for Perth on September 7.

The group has also appealed for volunteers to help with the organisation of the Edinburgh march and rally.

A volunteers’ meeting will be held in The Melting Pot at 5 Rose Street on Saturday from 1pm to 4pm.

AUOB posted the news about the Edinburgh march on their Facebook page yesterday evening.

They stated: “Today the 5th October march and rally has been officially approved by the authorities, so in six weeks time Scotland’s independence movement will assemble at Holyrood Park and march through the city to rally at the Meadows.”

A spokesperson for Edinburgh Council confirmed that the march was approved.