Illegally-placed flags will be removed, says Calderdale Reform UK councillor
The issue of Union or St George flags being attached to lamp posts in some parts of the borough hit the headlines late last year, proving controversial.
Illegally-placed flags flying from lamp posts will be removed later in the year in the course of routine maintenance, according to a Reform UK Calderdale councillor.
The issue of Union or St George flags being attached to lamp posts in some parts of the borough hit the headlines late last year, proving controversial.
A resident asked Calderdale Council’s Cabinet last November to take down the flags in his area of the borough.
He said about 50 had been put up illegally stretching stretch from outside the Town Hall in Elland, down Southgate, across Victoria Road, through Jepson Lane, along Longwall, down Saddleworth Road and into West Vale.
The council has followed a policy of removing the unofficial flags – it has days and times where flags are officially flown from council buildings – where they are dangerous, but otherwise they have been left with aim of removing as part of maintenance.
One of the councillors re-elected for Reform UK as part of the party’s winning control on Calderdale Council has posted they will therefore be removed in due course.
In a measured comment among a number of updates on issues for residents, Elland ward Coun Peter Hunt said some people wanted to know what was happening with the flags.
Coun Hunt said he acknowledged it is a “controversial and polarising” subject and he was elected to represent all views of residents in the ward.
“Some people want to know what’s happening with them.
“As far as I know, unless it changes, the policy is for later 2026 removal from lampposts by way of routine maintenance.
“I am in the process of finding out timescales.
“Please note, this does not mean I’m anti flag. Or, pro flag. (On street furniture).
“I’m just doing my job. I’m sure you understand.
“Here for you all,” he said.
Councillors crossed swords over the issue late last year, with former Greetland Liberal Democrat councillor Sue Holdsworth saying they were looking “tacky” and flown as “demarcation lines” as they often were flown in Northern Ireland’s sectarian divides.
Elland was “festooned” with such flags and being jokingly referred to as the “Fascist Republic of Calderdale”, she said.
Reform UK councillor Paul Hawkaluk, who is now the ruling group’s Deputy Group Leader, took issue with this, accusing Coun Holdsworth, who lost her Greetland seat in May’s elections, of “performative outrage.”
Coun Hawkaluk said last November in the debate that British people should be united under the Union flag, while the cross of patron saint St George is the national flag of England.
“There is no similar outrage when the Scottish Saltire or Cross of St Andrew is displayed – Scotland’s patron saint – nor should there be,” he said.