Village in U-turn over plans to take down the Union flag
A ROUND of applause erupted in Gamston as parish councillors voted to fly the Union Flag all year round.
The flag will now be flown outside the village hall 24 hours a day after Gamston Parish Council overturned its own plan to only fly the flag on significant days.
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Flying the flag: Gamston parish councillor John Harbury- Carlisle poses proudly with the Union flag outside Gamston Village Hall after winning his battle to get the standard flown from the village flagpole permanently.
For parish councillor John Harbury-Carlisle, who had threatened to resign over the issue, it was the only decision that could have been made at the meeting on Monday night.
"I feel fantastic," said Mr Harbury-Carlisle, adding that he no longer planned to resign.
"I believe it was the right decision to make. This is Great Britain and, as the public said, the flag is something we should be proud of.
"It is one of the only things we've got left."
He was not the only one to feel passionately about the flag.
Several members of the public spoke during the meeting, and a 59-signature petition supporting the year-round flying of the flag was handed to parish councillors.
Jane Bell travelled from East Leake to make her views known.
She defended the flying of the flag, adding that, for her, there were no issues of prejudice.
She said: "I am not racist, I am just standing up for what I believe in.
"The flag should stay – but don't turn this into a sort of racial problem because it really isn't."
Following the decision, she said: "I felt strongly enough to come here and show my support.
"There was only one decision that could have been made and the correct decision has been made."
Gamston resident Paul Tys, 57, said: "I think it's a great decision. It's nothing to do with black or white. Nobody is prejudiced.
"We wanted to make sure democracy was seen to take place – I don't see why the majority should be railroaded for the view of a very small minority."
The flagpole was put up outside the village hall in April to commemorate the Royal wedding.
A Union flag remained flying after the wedding but, in September, the parish council took the decision to only fly it on significant days – such as the Queen's Birthday and Remembrance Day.
Speaking at the meeting, parish councillor Cynthia Stacey said that the original decision had been made to give the flag greater impact.
"I'm as patriotic as the rest of you but we just thought that there would be more impact if it was flown on particularly significant days than all year round," she said.
"There was nothing sinister in our decisions."
Only two of the nine parish councillors voted against the motion to fly the flag all year round.
Melvyn Tisbury was one of them, saying the council had consulted residents before it made the decision to only fly it on significant days, and that the consultation had not been well responded to.
After the meeting, he said that the decision to fly the flag all year round had been made for the "wrong reasons".
"It's been hijacked by a few very loud and outspoken people who have come to collect information to support their causes," he said.
"There could be another petition against the flag tomorrow and so the parish council would be no better off."
Among those at the meeting not supporting calls for the flag to fly all year was Roger Henry.
Mr Henry, who visits Gamston with his work as a community cohesion mentor for Nottingham-based Real United Community Mentoring, said he was there to tell the meeting what the Union flag meant to him, as a black male. He said it made him feel "incredibly fearful" that the flag would be flown permanently.
An he claimed other people in the community who had a problem with the flag did not have the courage to say so.
He said: "I think the Union flag is amazing – absolutely fantastic. I have no problem with it being flown for Prince Charles's birthday or for Remembrance Day.
"But we as a community stand to lose the significance of what that flag represents when it is flown every day.
"If one person or two people decide that things aren't going the way they want, they are going to spit their dummy out and leave. That's what this is about.
"What's to prevent another parish councillor making that decision with the next item they don't want?"
After the decision was made, he said: "I knew in reality that I was never going to win but my voice has been heard. That's the important thing."
28 Comments
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by starving
Sunday, November 20 2011, 8:07AM
“If half of that is true!
I remember a case like this 15 years or so ago.
The so called Council Sponsored Youth Leader was nipping outside the club flogging drugs whilst the local dignitaries were hanging around inside waiting to have their pictures taken with him for the usual self-congratulatory self-promotional publicity junket. (allegedly) !”
by GreenMan11
Sunday, November 20 2011, 2:46AM
“Why does this information not surprise me in the least. One for the benefits agency and the local authorty safeguarding departments I think”
by lolitapapilio
Sunday, November 20 2011, 12:52AM
“"After seeing the interview with Roger Henry, based on the Union Jack flag being flown everyday in Gamston Village, I feel it is necessary to mention the following. Mr Henry feels that the flag is intimidating and makes him fearful yet I would like to beg to differ. Mr Henry has a repetition of being rather aggressive and I feel that nothing would be able to make him feel intimidated. He even stood up to the police whilst they arrested him for domestic violence. Also I feel the need to mention that Mr Henry has a very selfish attitude and is a recovering drug abuser. He was highly addicted to Crack Cocaine and Cannabis which inflicted a lot of disruptance.
As being apart of the community I don't think the flag has been high jacked by the BMP, I feel Mr Henry has high jacked the opportunity of becoming recognised by the press. I disagree with the majority of what Mr Henry said and I highly object to him being considered to becoming part of the Parish Council as he cannot commit to any of his current responsibilities. This is a major issue that I think should be seriously considered as I am not the only one that is aware of Mr Henry's past.
If we had known the Union Jack flag would have caused Mr Henry so much discomfort and fearfulness, I would have advised my friend to place the flag in front of her door before he started smashing it in to gain access.
Mr Henry claims to be a "Cohesion Mentor for young people and a Diversity Officer of Lincoln Univeristy" The pay must be poor considering he claims Job seeker's allowance. The job seekers payment must have risen seeing as he drives a nice car and lives in Gamston Village. From what I know, Job seekers wouldnt even pay for the petrol in his car, never mind his living expenses. I wonder what his sponsers think their money is being spent on. Think its about time to inspect!!!!!"”
by starving
Friday, November 18 2011, 4:23PM
“Like all these apparent storms in a tea cup it is not so much the individual surrender to the vague chunterings of PC half-brains but where it will lead and how long before the demands completely ruin any cultural dividends bequeathed by previous generations.”
by gerry_gilbert
Thursday, November 17 2011, 6:10PM
“@John: "A pole in the middle of an innoccuous field in the middle of an insignificant small housing estate is now elevated to a political battle of extremists."
That's disingenuous, to put it very mildly. The original NEP report at:
http://tinyurl.com/bvcdygc
had no connotations of nationalism or racism. Read the text. The mild proposal to not fly the flag all year was, in the words of the proposing councillor, because "flying the flag all the time would make it lose its significance". It was all the green inkers who piled into the comments board who made it into a major problem of national identity, and plainly the local far Right picked up on it and stoked it up into cause celebre as they so often do for propaganda.
There is no "battle of extremists" - there's only barking reactionaries and far Right racists weighing in on a simple uncontentious parish pump issue. I see no "extremists" from the Left involved, either in the text of the stories or on the comments pages. This is a non-story which has been deliberately blown up into a rallying call for nationalists and racists. It's not even a molehill into a mountain, because there was never even a molehill in the first place. The whole 'scandal' is a confection invented for political ends.
As for "intemporate" comments by Roger Henry, that's your interpretation and description, and even if he were winding up some folk that still doesn't mean that he's 'asking for it', which is basically what you're saying. Let's try it the other way around: if John Harbury-Carlisle, the councillor pictured wrapping the flag about himself, had received threats from far Left nutters, would that mean he was asking for it because of his intemporate language and behaviour which wound up Lefty extremists?”