A green-fingered pensioner has been told to remove a Union flagpole from her allotment patch – after council officials branded the structure a health and safety hazard.
Beryl McNichol, 71, accused the council of ‘bully boy’ tactics and refuses to comply. She has proudly flown the Union Flag for the past 20 months – occasionally alongside others – at times of national celebration, commemoration or importance.
But she has now been ordered to take down the flagpole or face eviction from her vegetable plot.
Mrs McNichol installed the 18ft metal flagpole at the allotment in Mansfield in September 2013 and received no complaints about her flags until she hoisted a UKIP flag before the general election.
Mansfield District Council asked her to take it down after receiving complaints about its political nature.
When a council officer went to the allotments, he removed the flag himself and decided that the pole posed a potential danger as it could fall on to a neighbouring path and road. The council now wants it removed.
Beryl said: “When the council worker came to hand deliver the letter on April 27 he went and took the flags down himself. At the time I was flying a Union flag and a UKIP flag on the bottom.
“Nobody has complained to me about flying a political flag. Folks have complained since they have come down.”
The flagpole remains on Beryl’s allotment and she is eager to fly her flags again, but the council say there are health and safety issues.
Beryl added: “I want to put the flags back up. On VE Day I did hoist the ‘Lest We Forget’ flag. I do want to fly the Union Jack flag again.
“The flags give you a moment of reflection and with the recent Nepal disaster we would have put it at half mast.
“I’ll fight for the right for people to have their opinion.”
Martyn Thurman, head of neighbourhood services at Mansfield District Council, said that on inspection, they found health and safety issues over the flagpole, which is next to a public footpath, and ordered it to be removed.