Planners refuse to rally round the flag (From Romsey Advertiser)

Planners refuse to rally round the flag

8:50am Friday 10th October 2008 in News

Earlier this year, Test Valley Borough Council celebrated Romsey’s Memorial Park winning prestigious Green Flag status. But now its own planning committee has refused permission for the flag to be flown in the park.

Councillors rejected an officers’ application for a six-metre (20-foot) high flagpole. Romsey’s Tadburn member, Mark Cooper, led the shock revolt at Test Valley’s Southern Area Planning committee meeting on Tuesday.

Mr Cooper, said: “Romsey War Memorial Park is an attractive and popular asset for the town and Test Valley does a good job in looking after it for us. That’s why they won a Green Flag award for the park in the first place.

“But it does not serve the park’s interest nor that of users to have a tall, visually-intrusive flagpole and a six-foot wide flag spoiling the park’s ambience. It may be an appropriate advert on a building site, but not here.”

He added: “Nor is it in the interests of people who live in the nearby houses to have to listen to the flapping of a flag and the slap of the halyard against the pole all day long.

“The pole and flag are visually- and audibly-intrusive and should be refused. If Test Valley wish to tell us all about the Green Flag Award, they can put a plaque at the entrance or one of the existing structures.”

The Green Flag Award, run by the Civic Trust, recognises Britain’s best green spaces.

Borough cabinet leisure spokeswoman, Caroline Nokes, was the only committee member to vote in favour of the flagpole.

Afterwards, Mrs Nokes said: “I think it is a great shame nobody else shared my enthusiasm to celebrate the prestigious award.

“We are very proud to have the War Memorial Park recognised for a national award. The flagpole was designed to have the lanyards contained within it, thus completely removing the suggested problem of noise nuisance that was put forward as reason for refusal.”

And the secretary of Friends of Romsey War Memorial Park, Mrs Dorothy Baverstock, who was unable to attend the planning meeting, said she was “horrified” when she heard about the decision.

“The park in a jewel in Romsey’s crown and to get the Green Flag Award was amazing. It would have been nice to display the flag. It didn’t mean that it had to be flown all the time. It could have been flown on auspicious occasions and the flagpole could be been used on Remembrance Sunday to fly the Union Flag,” said Mrs Baverstock, who is also the borough council’s deputy leisure portfolio holder.

She pointed out that different flags and signs advertising new housing developments had gone up all over the area, yet one celebrating an award for Romsey’s park had been refused.

The borough council had been given permission to fly the flag for a year by the Civic Trust.

Asked whether what the next move was, a borough spokeswoman, Carey Taylor, said: “The council will be looking at the best way to give public recognition to what is a valued award in light of the committee’s decision to reject the application for a flagpole in the War Memorial Park.”