Council staff have removed just one national flag from a lamppost despite receiving more than 130 requests to do so, new figures show. Data from Norfolk County Council indicates the authority handled a total of 139 complaints about Union Jack and St George’s Cross flags, which were put up by members of the public.
Thousands of the flags were erected over the course of several weeks in the summer, as part of a campaign called Operation Raise the Colours. Those involved say the aim was to promote patriotism and national pride. However, the campaign ran into controversy in many quarters, with some claiming the flags were being flown provocatively and were stirring up divisions.
The council and police were caught in the middle of the debate, with critics – including many councillors – saying the authorities should do more to take down the flags. But Conservative-run Norfolk County Council opted to only remove banners for ‘safety reasons’.
The new figures, revealed following a Freedom of Information request, underline this: the only flag council teams removed was on Burgh Road roundabout near Bradwell, where it was deemed a hazard to drivers. Every other flag that has disappeared did so because local people took matters into their own hands. That decision, born of frustration, has repeatedly placed residents in harm’s way.
A summer of tension
The data also shows just how widespread the displays became. Of the 139 complaints, 70 came from Norwich alone. In September the city endured several nights of unease after hundreds of flags appeared overnight, including outside a mosque. Long stretches of Dereham Road were lined with banners from Bowthorpe — close to a hotel housing asylum seekers — all the way to Grapes Hill.
Many residents were unsettled by the sudden displays and tried to prevent more flags going up or sought to remove them quietly. The result was confrontation. There were 26 ‘highway defect’ reports across Norwich for Dereham Road, nine for Barn Road and 14 for St Crispins Road, with further reports across Great Yarmouth, Thetford, Diss, King’s Lynn, Wymondham, Harleston, Dereham, Swaffham, Wroxham, North Walsham and Downham Market, as well as villages such as Needham, Little Melton and Ditchingham.
At ground level, the council’s refusal to intervene created a vacuum in which ordinary residents – already anxious about what the flags represented – found themselves feeling responsible for policing their own streets.
Violence at 4am
That responsibility proved dangerous for one Norwich resident. A 68-year-old man ended up in hospital after attempting to remove a flag in the early hours. He had previously gone out with others to take down the banners but was alone that night. When he tried to remove one from a lamppost on Earlham Green Lane, he was confronted by a man and a boy who shouted abuse. As he retreated, more people arrived.
“A white car arrived and about four people piled out and started attacking me,” he says. “I was face down in the road while they hit me, using the pole I was using to take the flags down to strike me. And someone stomped on my head.”
The assault stopped only when a passerby intervened and called police. The victim later showed officers the house near where the confrontation began; a car matching his description was parked outside. Officers recovered his pole.
Yet police later informed him the investigation had been closed. Without CCTV and with conflicting accounts, they said there was no realistic prospect of identifying suspects. The man is furious: “We are in a position where the right can intimidate us off the street with violence but the police are standing around doing nothing.”
Pattern of intimidation
This was not an isolated incident. Only weeks earlier in Diss, three women taking down flags on Park Road were surrounded by a group of teenagers who shouted abuse, filmed them and directed racist remarks towards them. Police attended but took no action. The women later said officers suggested they were “causing trouble”.
James Harvey, Green Party councillor for Broadland, condemned the harassment at the time. “I can only imagine how terrified the three women in Diss must have felt when they were surrounded and pursued,” he says. “Threatening and abusive behaviour is neither acceptable nor legal.” He warned that without firmer intervention “it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt”. That prediction has since come true.
Symbols of unity – or intimidation?
Supporters of ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ insist the flags represent pride and unity. But as the displays have become intertwined with anti-immigrant messaging and far-right online organising, they have turned into rallying points. Small groups can be summoned quickly to confront anyone who tries to take them down. For those targeted, these are not harmless expressions of patriotism but tools of intimidation.
Norfolk County Council’s decision to avoid removing the flags – even after 139 complaints – has left residents to deal with the consequences themselves. The result is an atmosphere in which people feel both unprotected and unsafe, while those determined to enforce these displays face little pushback.
Harvey believes the shift is clear: “Behaviour that would have been unacceptable just six months ago is now being normalised. Violence, threats and intimidation are unacceptable, whichever side you are on. Norfolk deserves better.”
Until civic leaders and police treat these incidents with greater seriousness, the message being heard by those who use these flags to provoke is unmistakable: intimidation works, and they can act with impunity.
This article is based on one by Local Democracy Reporting.
More from East Anglia Bylines
