Nobody wants to pay for Reform council's £75,000 flags

Eyebrows were raised last year when cash-strapped Nottinghamshire Council, struggling with inflation and the rising cost of social care demands, announced it was to blow £75,000 on hanging flags from lampposts.

The Reform-run council – which has since hiked council tax by 3.99%, having run for office with a pledge to reduce it – claimed the Union flags were a “long-term investment” with local businesses queueing up to sponsor them.

The charge was led by Lee Anderson, MP for Ashfield and Reform chief whip, who poured scorn on those who doubted that firms would be willing to cough up. The installation of 164 flags “will not cost the taxpayer a single penny”, Anderson insisted, adding: “We’ve been putting these up all around Nottinghamshire. They’re everywhere.

“Yes, it has cost £75,000 to put these up all throughout Nottinghamshire but the good news is it will not cost the taxpayer a single penny. We want to get these sponsored by local businesses. They’re going to pay for the fitting, the upkeep and the maintenance.”

Now, four months after they were first hung up, an enterprising local resident has put in a Freedom of Information request to the council to find out just how many companies had chipped in, and the answer is… not a single one!

In response to the query, the council said: “We have had a small number of enquiries from organisations expressing interest in sponsoring some of the banners. We have not yet entered into any sponsorship agreements, as we are doing our due diligence to make sure we have the necessary approvals and planning permissions in place first.”

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The actual cost of the flags themselves is around £16,000 – a whopping £97 each, when you can get them on Amazon from around seven quid – while nearly half of the £75,000 spent was on replacing the brackets that hold them to lampposts. The rest of the sum covers taking them down, maintenance and other contingencies.

Still, council leader Mick Barton is confident the sponsorship money will soon start rolling in, telling Nottinghamshire Live: “We’ve had three or four pubs, a factory, a café, a couple of restaurants, and I think we’ve had a warehouse.”

Barton is a very serious man. When, during the meeting which saw his party hike council tax, the Conservatives put down an amendment with an alternative budget proposal, Barton labelled it a “Beano budget” and proceeded to wave around a copy of said comic which, for some reason, he had brought into the chamber with him.

Meanwhile, Anderson was busying himself in London, where he was with fellow Tory-turned-Reform MP Suella Braverman at the big boxing match between Deontay Wilder and Derek Chisora, the latter being a big supporter of Nigel Farage’s mob.

“Date Night… With @SuellaBraverman,” wrote Anderson on X. “But don’t tell @raelbrav. He’s punching,” he added, including a boxing glove emoji and the handle for the now-deleted account of Rael Braverman, the former home secretary’s husband. Alas, Farage’s chum Chisora, tipped to stand for Reform at the next general election, was not punching hard enough and lost.