The Orange Order will today join loyalist groups during a protest against Glasgow City Council’s ‘illegal’ banning of marches.

A “substantial” number of people are due to take to George Square after an emergency public processions committee on Wednesday ruled that six parades would be prohibited following advice from Police Scotland.

It was announced after that meeting that the Orange Lodge of Scotland is to join the Scottish Protestants Against Discrimination (SPAD) at the city chambers from 10am.

The move by the council comes after two weekends of disruption surrounding marches.

READ MORE: All republican and loyalist marches this weekend banned by Glasgow City Council

Last Saturday, a major policing operation was deployed in the city centre as two Republican parades were met with protests.

On that day, a police officer was injured after he was hit by a pyrotechnic thrown by a protester and while 11 people were arrested for various offences.

And just over a week earlier, riot-like scenes erupted in Govan after Loyalist protesters disrupted an Irish Unity march by the James Connolly Republican Flute Band.

There were five Loyalists and one Irish Republican parades planned in the city this weekend that the council axed.

Today, the Republican Network for Unity, Bridgeton Protestant Boys Flute Band, Pride of the North Flute Band and two marches from the Whiteinch Orange and Purple District were due to take place.

Meanwhile, the Partick Orange and Purple District had arranged to march on Sunday.

READ MORE: Church of Scotland back Glasgow City Council on loyalist and republican march ban

Jim McHarg, Grand Master of the Orange Lodge, said the group could “no longer ignore…whilst our democratic right of free assembly is curtailed by politically motivated anti-unionist nationalists.”

He added: “It is a sad day for democracy when a narrow-minded band of anti-unionist nationalist councillors, aided and abetted by Police Scotland, abuse the law and introduce illegal measures that curtail a citizen’s right of peaceful assembly”.