Complaint ignored: Croydon Council rejected a resident’s complaint over the unlawful fixing of the flags to lampposts along Coulsdon Common
Croydon’s failed Mayor, Jason Perry, went on the telly last week boasting of “zero tolerance” for fly-tippers.
Yet his council has refused to remove hundreds of St George cross flags that have been tethered illegally to lamp posts along Coulsdon Road, through Coulsdon Common and past The Fox pub, all the way into Caterham and Surrey.
The flags along Coulsdon Road – mostly at half-staff, which is generally regarded as poor form unless someone important has died – constitute fly-posting, which can be punished with fines of up to £2,500 if convicted in court.
Yet Croydon Council has refused to act to have the flags removed, even though it is well-established that the use of such flags is part of a co-ordinated hate campaign against minority groups.
Farage flag-shaggers and tragic roundabout painters have climbed out from under their rocks at the urgings of hardened and extreme far-right activists.
The co-founder of “Operation Raise the Colours” is Andrew Currien, also known as Andy Saxon, a long-time ally of Stephen Yaxley Lennon, the serial criminal who calls himself Tommy Robinson.
Currien was previously a member of the English Defence League’s “bodyguard team”, and he now runs security for the far-right Britain First party.
Currien has a significant criminal record: he was one of six men convicted in 2009 after a 59-year-old man was crushed to death by a car following a violent brawl, the attack being racially motivated.
“Across the country, many of the small groups that have come together to raise the flags are being organised by well-known far-right extremists,” Hope Not Hate is reporting.
“Britain First claims to have provided many of the flags in the North West. ‘Britain First has, so far, donated 75% of its flag stock to local teams in Manchester and the West Midlands for “Operation Raise The Colours”,’ tweeted [Britain First] leader Paul Golding.”
Saxon worrier: the far-right is claiming credit for the distribution of the St George’s flags
There is nothing wrong with raising the Union flag or cross of St George (provided the usual niceties of having the owner’s prior permission). Despite deliberately provocative claims to the contrary, it has never been illegal to be proud to be English or British.
And not everyone who has raised a flag in the past few weeks will be far-right.
“But the fact that much of this wave of activism is being organised by well-known racists and extremists does raise questions about the motivations behind much of Operation Raise the Colours,” Hope Not Hate says.
Which then brings us to the rights and wrongs of abusing public infrastructure, an area in which Tory Mayor Perry has form, having run a Facebook page which glorified, celebrated and encouraged some to deface and destroy ULEZ cameras and equipment when the clean-air zone was extended to outer London two years ago.
The ULEZ vandalism Facebook page was part of another concerted campaign which was described then as a “vile cesspit of racism”.
And now Piss-poor Perry’s council is refusing to act over the defacing of public property – mostly lamp posts along the main road to Caterham.
Zero action: Croydon’s Tory Mayor Jason Perry
“There’s not just one or two… There’s hundreds of the things,” according to a concerned reader.
They reported those that are in Caterham to Tandridge District Council. Tandridge told the member of the public to contact Surrey County Council. And Surrey referred the complaint to Tandridge…
With Croydon, the complainant was told to use the council’s CrapApp. The only problem being that the CrapApp has no category for fly-posting (or flag-shagging, for that matter). FixMyStreet, the alternative, and free, app, run by mySociety, does have a fly-posting category under which to make reports.
Undeterred, the concerned resident managed to jump through the CrapApp’s digital hoops to file their complaint, in which they noted: “I find it extremely upsetting and intimidating as this crude perversion of our national flag into political propaganda makes me feel like I am living in a fascist state.
“It is clearly one group’s attempt to claim ownership over public land and municipal assets. Please remove them.”
But after they pressed “Send”, they got a reply which summarily closed the complaint: “Your report has now been closed.
“Unfortunately, on this occasion it has been marked as ‘Not completed’. You can view updates on the report in your Love Clean Streets app.”
The response, from Croydon Council, said that common reasons for complaints being closed in this way include:
- this issue was recently reported at this location and therefore this is a duplicate report that is being dealt with separately. You can view other reports on the map in Love Clean Streets
- we were unable to locate the issue
- it is not within the council’s area to deal with
- it is on private land that we are unable to gain access to
- sometimes users submit the report incorrectly, for example selecting the wrong category or address
The concerned resident said: “None of those excuses hold good: the flags are on the public highway, within Croydon Council’s area, and can be seen quite clearly all along the road, as reported. If someone else has reported it, then why haven’t the flags been removed?
“I suppose the council’s fall-back, as ever, is to blame its own residents for not submitting the report correctly, and using that as an excuse for not doing anything.”
Half-staff: the raising of the flags has been half-cock and half-arsed
They tried again, not just with Croydon, but Surrey and Tandridge. And they got a response from someone called “Lauren”, who explained that she doesn’t actually work for any of the councils, but for the tech firm that provides the app software.
“Lauren seems to sort of Hoover-up all their complaints into a giant complaint soup and then she decides which ones should be acted upon or not.
“You can still complain to the council directly, through their complaints form. But how long will that all take? I guess the problem with this is that in this situation. it leaves Lauren, an expert in HTML and Java, with absolute authority to delete residents’ complaints but with absolutely no responsibility to taxpayers.
“Does Croydon Council care? How long will the flags be there for? Lauren can’t answer, because she believes that even posing such questions is some kind of harassment, when of course it is nothing of the sort.”
As, once again, the difference between what Mayor Perry says, and what his council actually does, is exposed to be glaringly different.
Read more: Tory minister is member of online group that salutes vandals
Read more: Perry’s Facebook group hosted video by Islamophobic ‘comic’
Read more: Perry’s Piles: Council refuses to act on 30 dumped mattresses
Read more: ‘Busted’: Mayor’s video shows rubbish contractors are failing
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What P-P Perry says and what he actually does are worlds apart!
I was under the impression that council permission had to besought and granted. For example the Crystal Palace FC banners attached to lampposts was a result of an application and fee. So is this another financial loss to the council?
After the sun has bleached them and the weather has turned them into tattered pieces of cheap cloth are they going to still leave them there?
The council is bankrupt and we’re complaining that they’re not spending more to take down England flags?
They have a statutory duty to maintain the state of the streets. And a £40million contract with Veolia to do so.
The point surely is that a national flag is being used as a dog whistle to attract much baser than jingoism and an elected Council doesn’t give a shit about it.
Perry won’t take down flags put up at the instigation of neo-fascists. He hopes the scoundrels will vote for him
Neo-fascists?
The extreme left think the England flag is racist, fascist and genocidal. But where’s the @@@@ evidence?
They don’t Chris.
But there’s evidence, as in the article if you bothered to read it, that thousands of the flags have been provided by overt racists and fascists.
And they are not doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, and certainly not out of any sense of patriotism.
after reading the article, you are probably right about who is supplying the flags, but it is a peaceful way of protesting i and i think many others are glade that our frustrations with government from both sides of the spectrum are not responding quick enough to peoples concerns over immigration
Yes, Chris, “where’s the @@@@ evidence” to back your ridiculous claim that “the extreme left think the England flag is racist, fascist and genocidal”?
OK Chris who exactly are the people who spend their weekend mornings in Wetherspoon’s getting pissed up on Wifebeater, then drape English flags around themselves and go and shout at hotels for the afternoon. Then, and I’m not joking, going home to beat their wives.
I was under the impression the flags are a form of support for the England Ladies Rugby team
Here’s some bad news for the flag fliers.
St George’s flag was flown by Richard Lionheart, king of England in the Crusades. Richard was such a keen King of England that for during much of his reign he lived in France, barely visited England and didn’t speak a word of English. He mainly wrote and spoke French and Occitan. Saint George, himself, was a Roman soldier, born in Turkey and martyred for his Christian beliefs.
So they’re not even celebrating an icon which doesn’t have specially strong English connections through Richard or the saint, himself.
Bit nuanced for the English Defence League, though, don’t you think, Richard?
Sadly, I suspect you are right!
Union and St George flags put up on lamp posts in parts of Clerkenwell last month have been removed.
Our National flags should be proudly flying everywhere anyway . Had that been the case the ‘far right’ or whatever you want to call them wouldn’t have had a gap in our national failure to fill . Get our flag up everywhere England it belongs to all of us
“Our National flags should be proudly flying everywhere anyway”
Should they? For what purpose?