“This is the flag of all of us,” says Rotherham Council leader defending £500 flag pole scheme
The new scheme will allow community groups to claim up to £500 to put up flagpoles
The leader of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has warned against “surrendering” national symbols to extremist narratives as he defended a grant scheme to fund flags for community buildings.
During a cabinet meeting on February 9, Independent councillor Taiba Yasseen raised questions about the scheme, which allows community groups to claim up to £500 towards a flagpole as well as a Union Flag or St George’s flag, or both.
Cllr Yasseen said her concerns were around enforcement, particularly if demand for the scheme proved high.
“We don’t know what the demand will be. It may not be anything. It could be quite substantial. If somebody wants to put up the pride flag, or the Ukraine flag, for example, or the Palestinian flag….how will that be enforced?”
Responding, council leader Chris Read said the policy was about reclaiming national symbols from extremist narratives and ensuring flags were flown “properly and with respect”.
“Unless we say this is the flag of all of us, we surrender it to those people that you and I worry about. If we allow ourselves to be in a position where we say that the flag is a sign of extremism, or that it can only be used by people who believe in an extreme form of politics or in an anti immigration agenda or a kind of far right agenda.
“If we allow that to be what we say, then one, will lose the confidence the public, but two, we will land ourselves in a real mess in terms of what that flag is about.
“Over time, we move away from having it flown from lampposts, with all the implications that that has. This is really important that we are proud of the identity that we have, all of us together.”
Cllr Read added that public engagement had shown a majority of residents wanted to see the Union flag and St George’s flag flying across the borough, adding that the funding involved would be “a very small amount of money”.
He stressed that the scheme was limited to community and parish council buildings and did not apply to businesses or pubs.
“We will pay for a flagpole and a national flag. We hope that they will fly one of those national flights from it, if they were to choose to fly something else, that’s their responsibility, and that’s up to them.
“The object of the grant funding is to make it more possible to support the flying of those two national flags in the spirit that described.”