Halton Borough Council Leader, Cllr Mike Wharton, says:
“Halton proudly flies the Union flag at Council buildings such as the Municipal Building in Widnes and the Town Hall in Runcorn every day.
“In recent days, flags have been appearing on lampposts in Halton. For reasons of safety, anything attached to a lamppost needs to have the permission of the Highways Authority. The Highways Authority has a legal duty to ensure that any item attached to public lampposts have been installed correctly – we’re sure nobody wants a flag coming loose from a lamppost on a highway and ending up on a moving vehicle’s windscreen and potentially putting the driver, passengers and pedestrians at risk by causing an accident.
“It is not true that you cannot put up a flag on your own property, you can. You are always able to put flags up on your own properties or vehicles, but not on property owned by others, this includes both publicly owned street furniture and private property. You can find further information and guidance here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flying-flags-a-plain-english-guide/flying-flags-a-plain-english-guide
“Halton Borough Council will have to carry out its legal Highways duties and remove any flags that are a potential hazard to highway users. However, we want to work with our residents that wish to fly our national flags and for it to be done safely, both for the people putting up flags and for highway users.
“Nobody wants an act of celebrating our country to end up with anybody being hurt. So, we’d ask that the people putting up the flags on the highways lampposts to contact us so that we can work together on this. You can contact Highways@halton.gov.uk
“The Women’s Rugby World Cup has started, and we wish the England team every success in the tournament.
“We will be leaving the Union and England flags up, that don’t cause any danger or harm, for the duration of the Rugby World Cup to support our national team.”