Removing flags from roads costs council £6k

PATRIOTIC” vandals who painted the St George’s Cross on road markings across North Somerset have cost the council enough money to have filled 200 potholes.

- JOHN WIMPERIS Local Democracy Reporter

North Somerset Council's cabinet member for Highways, Hannah Young (Clevedon South, Labour), told a council meeting on Tuesday that repainting road markings and taking down flags had to date cost the council £6,000.

She said: “What could we do with £6,000? Well, we could fill 200 potholes which personally I would prefer to see us doing rather than having to repaint over vandalised roads.”

She was responding to a question from Councillor Helen Thornton (Weston-super-Mare Uphill, Labour) who called the flags “part of a far-right campaign called Operation Raise the Colours,” and warned that Black and ethnic minority communities may have been intimidated.

A Facebook group titled Operation Raise the Colours says its campaign is about patriotism.

Ms Thornton said: “Regardless of the motivations of these actions, they also constitute vandalism or antisocial behaviour.”