A Norfolk town council is to fly the Union Flag every day of year, in line with government guidance - but is considering a smaller flag to protect its building from the crushing weight of a standard flagpole.
At a Tuesday meeting of Dereham Town Council, councillors returned to the question of how best to observe new guidance from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which said the UK’s “symbol of national unity and pride” should be flown every day, and not just on the 20 annual occasions it is normally raised.
While the guidance is aimed at UK government buildings, local authorities are “encouraged” to “follow suit where they wish to fly flags”.
%image(14428677, type="article-full", alt="Town clerk Tony Needham explained that the chain's life would by extended by mayor's names being re-engraved onto the chain only once, no matter how many terms in office they have held.")
At a meeting of the town council’s social and welfare committee last week, town clerk Tony Needham said the issue was “looked at some years ago by the council.”
“At the time they felt that flying it every day detracted from the days when you did fly it. So what do you do on the Queen’s birthday and other days when you just fly the union flag?” said Mr Needham.
Councillors agreed the flag could be made less special if it were flown every day, but that a solution may be to fly one every day from the council offices, and only on special occasions at the war memorial.
%image(14451616, type="article-full", alt="Concern was raised that the older side of Dereham Town Council's assembly rooms may be unable to bear the weight of a standard flagpole.")
However, concerns were raised about a flagpole damaging the council’s building, as previous experience had illustrated.
On Tuesday, councillor Linda Monument said: “One of the problems of having a flagpole on the assembly rooms was the weight of the flagpole.
"It was an enormous old thing and it was damaging the bricks, it was pulling the corner of the building out.
“I wonder whether it might be possible to consider whether we can get a smaller flag and a lighter pole… so that we could put a flagpole on the assembly rooms without it being a full size.”
%image(14451617, type="article-full", alt="Councillor Linda Monument asked "whether it might be possible to consider whether we can get a smaller flag and a lighter pole".")
Mr Needham said: “You can get storm flags for wind speeds of greater than 30mph, so there are things to look into and see what’s possible on that.”
Mayor Stuart Green said: “If we can’t put it on the older side, [we can put it] on the newer side.”
The council will also purchase a Norfolk Flag, and add Norfolk Day to its own list of flag-flying days.
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