Local councils spent £61,000+ taking down 'Operation Raise the Colours' flags - North East data
Local councils have spent more than £60k taking down flags across Britain this year, according to Freedom of Information (FOI) data.
Union Flags and Saint George's Crosses appeared across the nation over the summer, which supporters put down to a rise in patriotism. However, critics accused the people behind the movement - including 'Operation Raise the Colours' - of being associated with far-right extremists.
In the North East, FOI data has now revealed that Durham County Council spent £176 on 4 jobs.
Campaigners advocated flying the Union Flag and St George’s Cross in public places – saying it promoted patriotism. Critics, such as advocacy group Hope not Hate, say the campaign was organised by ‘well-known racists and extremists’.
The costs data was uncovered in a FOI request sent by Pablo O’Hana to 383 local councils. It revealed that £61,770 had been spent by 36 local authorities. The political adviser made headlines in August when he ripped down a St George’s flag from a road bridge in Manchester and got in to a heated argument with the man who’d put it up.
Pablo says he thinks the actual cost of the removals could be much higher, as the data shows 583 incidents of flag removals across 276 areas – but just 36 councils recorded a cost to the work, indicating most have absorbed the costs into their budgets. For example, Surrey County Council recorded 67 clean-up jobs at a cost of £0.
Liberal Democrat MP Adam Dance warned that councils face a ‘behind-the-scenes financial crisis’ due to the flag removals. He said: “Flag removals being soaked up by other teams like neighbourhood and highways may keep services moving in the short term but it hides the true cost, warps resourcing, and we can’t see whether cash is being quietly diverted from frontline services like social care, street cleaning, libraries or road repairs.
“The bottom line is simple: where councils show their numbers, the bills are real; where they don’t, the work is real but the costs are hidden. That isn’t transparency; it’s accountancy fog, and local residents lose out. Taxpayers have the right to know where and how their money is being spent. Every pound should be visible and well spent.”
FOI data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tJZa4m_20OxgHek_1yibID6E7oInzXne05yZPwFeOS4/edit?usp=sharing