The Reform UK-led Nottinghamshire County Council leader has defended his plan to splurge £75,000 on installing new Union flags. Councillor Mick Barton, the Reform leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, has been criticised for planning to put up 164 Union flags across Nottinghamshire to “strengthen community spirit”. The flags will be displayed across 82 locations, reportedly costing Nottinghamshire council £475 each. This will include brackets, traffic management and utilising cherry pickers.
Cllr Barton said: “We just feel it’s the right thing to do, and it gives that feel-good factor, that’s what we’re doing it for. When people are putting all these St George and Union flags up, they’re not going to last forever… so we thought we would support the public in what they want, but long term we can use it for all sorts of events that’s going across the county.” However, the move has been bashed by both Labour and the Conservatives.
Councillor Sam Smith, the Conservative leader of the opposition at the county council, said: “I enjoy seeing flags flying on the lampposts but question why a council needs to spend money on putting them up when residents across the county and country are doing it as part of a grassroots, power to the people movement.
“We don’t need to be spending on this when we can be spending money on protecting taxpayer services like libraries, buses and youth services.”
Councillor Penny Gowland, the leader of the Labour group at Nottinghamshire County Council, believes that some communities “will see this as divisive, in some communities they will see this as a joke, in some communities this will be welcomed.”
He said: “£75,000 is a lot of money that could be used on council services.
“If flags are about bringing us together, not dividing us, then I’ve got no problem with it.
“But I think we should have the confidence in our country not to put flags up everywhere.”
Labour councillor Helen Faccio, who represents Toton, Chilwell and Attenborough, told the BBC that Reform had originally promised to cut wasteful spending.
She said: “Then we hear about huge spending on flags. My residents would say we should spend money filling potholes or investing in youth clubs,” she said.
Defending the move, Cllr Barton said that “the money has come from efficiencies that we have already made,” adding that “there have been no cuts of services” to fund the £75,000.
The decision does not have to be voted on, but councillors can object to it within the next four days.
