Councillor claims 'we're backsliding into the ugliest echoes of our past'

The recent spate of flags being attached to lampposts in the borough follows nationalists being accused of 'crossing the line' by daubing St George's crosses on pedestrian crossings and roundabouts.

- by Gareth Crickmer

The paint on a road crossing at Chichester.

Biddick Hall and All Saints Green councillor, Cllr Chris Davies, has warned that those attaching flags to lampposts and other street furniture are committing a criminal offence.

He insisted the “vast majority” of people lived by British values of ‘quiet decency and care’ but says “The flag displays we've seen recently don’t come from that same place.”

Cllr Davies wrote on X: “These people claim to represent community, pride and tradition - and individually, the majority who fly a flag of course do.

“But when it becomes systematic, when every lamppost and every prominent position is plastered, the meaning changes.