There have been 13 days of deadlock in Portadown since the decision to allow an Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road on 27 September.
That morning, up to 1,000 people – including politicians such as Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill – blocked the road, preventing Orangemen marching from Drumcree Church a mile to the west.
Since then, residents have maintained a constant presence around the road while Orangemen have also repeatedly tried to march the route before being turned back by police.
The Chief Constable, Jon Boutcher, had said last week that the consequences of police forcing an Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road “could be catastrophic”.
He had said while the PSNI’s objective was to facilitate the determination, this could not be done “at all costs”.
As of last Thursday, the policing operation over the dispute had cost about £3m.
Two weeks ago exactly, the Parades Commission issued a determination saying that the Orange Order parade was to be allowed on the mainly-nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown with restrictions in place.
That prompted a legal challenge from the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition which opposed the march.
The Court of Appeal is considering whether to allow a challenge to the Parades Commission’s ruling, which has been lodged by residents.
Drumcree was one of Northern Ireland’s most serious parading disputes, when stand-offs in the mid-to-late 1990s over attempts by the Orange Order to march along the Garvaghy Road were accompanied by riots, roadblocks and killings.
When the Orange Order was prevented by police from walking down the route in July 1995, there was a tense stand-off. It was the same for the next three years.
The Parades Commission began operating in 1998 to regulate parades and try to defuse tension around marches.
Its decision not to allow a march down the Garvaghy Road that summer has been challenged by the order for the past three decades.
Earlier this year the Parades Commission decided that the march could go ahead with restrictions in place after its original decision to stop the march was overturned in court.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal is considering its ruling in a legal challenge brought by the residents to block the march going ahead.