A group of teenagers and young people spent days putting up more than 30 flags bearing the cross of St George on lamp posts in Pankhurst Avenue, Brighton, ahead of the World Cup.*shrug* If that's what they want, why not? They do, after all, pay for those lamp posts...
The Argus featured the flags in Thursday’s paper and told how the community was delighted with the decorations.
But the council thought that was a damned cheek, contravening health and safety, and probably also racist.
But shortly after 10am yesterday residents were stunned to see council workers in cherry pickers taking the flags down.Well, it's not like they can't just go ahead and put them back up, is it? And indeed, that's exactly what happened:
Brighton and Hove City Council said it removed the flags to send out a message about the dangers involved in climbing lamp posts.
Dozens of people gathered in the street to protest and The Argus was inundated with calls criticising the council.Which seems to have had the desired effect:
Alex Fry, 18, who was one of the teenagers who put the flags up, said: “This is a joke. We will be putting them straight back up.
“We used a ladder to do it. It was safe.”
The group followed the cherry picker as it removed the flags and called out: “You can bring them down, but they’ll go back up.”
At 11.15am yesterday the men driving the cherry pickers said they had been contacted by their office and told not to take any more flags down.I wonder how long it took for...?
Ah:
Ten minutes after the cherry pickers left the first flag was put back up.So, did the counxcil apologise for this utter rout, costing god knows how much?
What do you think?
The council insisted it did not back-track on its original decision.And then you stopped in the middle of your action and got the hell out of Dodge. Yeah, real convincing...
A spokeswoman said: “We took the bunting down to send out a clear message about the danger and hopefully to persuade residents not to do this.
“If anyone really wants to hang bunting from lamp posts – and it’s appropriate – they should get in touch and we’ll help them do this safely.”Oh, sure. That's what you say now. But if the residents had asked, the answer would have undoubtedly been that it wasn't appropriate.
So the message you've ended up sending to residents has been quite a different one to the one you wanted to send, hasn't it?
And this happened in Brighton, a veritable capital of progressive thinking!
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like plenty of room for public sector cuts there.
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like plenty of room for an alternative use for the lampposts,
ReplyDeletethat would hopefully send an even clearer message.
“If anyone really wants to hang bunting from lamp posts – and it’s appropriate – they should get in touch and we’ll help them do this safely.”
ReplyDeleteBut not cheaply, I don't doubt.
"we’ll help them do this safely"
ReplyDeleteBeleive it or not, people can do things "safely" without the help of local council jobsworths.
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ReplyDeleteThe Town Hall should be flying Swastika bunting. That is, of course, if there is room next to the Gay Pride flag.
ReplyDelete"And this happened in Brighton, a veritable capital of progressive thinking!"
ReplyDeleteIt appears that's just the urban centre, not the whole area.
I must admit, when I saw they were talking about the merits of hanging bunting, I was pleased.
Then I realised they weren't talking about Madeline Bunting...
Who would have thought that an absence of St George's flag bunting would fill me with such rage and fury?
ReplyDeleteGod, I hate these people and their nannying ways.
It does rather make one want to go out and hang the stuff everywhere, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not even a football fan!
"hang the stuff"
ReplyDeleteIt makes me want to hang council employees.