Warwickshire County Council has removed the power of its chief executive to decide which flags are flown outside the council's Shire Hall headquarters and given that authority to the council chairman.
The decision, taken at a cabinet meeting on 4 September, follows a dispute earlier in the year over the flying of a Progress Pride Flag outside Shire Hall in Warwick during Pride Month in June. Council leader George Finch, of the Reform group, had requested the flag's removal when he took office; Monica Fogarty, the council's chief executive, refused.
Under the new policy, the chairman of the council, Reform councillor Edward Harris, will have sole responsibility for decisions on which flags may be flown at the council site. Previously those decisions rested with the council's chief executive. The Progress Pride Flag is a redesigned rainbow flag that adds stripes intended to represent a wider range of marginalised communities.
Explaining the change during the cabinet meeting, Mr Finch said the new arrangement "takes it out of the hands of the elected leader, it takes it out of the hands of non-elected members, it puts it in the hands of the chairman of the council." He said the move was intended to promote unity and suggested that, as a principle, only the Union Flag, the St George's Cross or the Warwickshire county flag should normally fly outside Shire Hall. He added that other flags could be permitted "at the discretion of the chair."
Opposition councillors criticised the transfer of authority as politically motivated. Jerry Roodhouse, leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition, said he had "never seen a chairman yet go against their political party in a council meeting" and dismissed suggestions that future decisions would be non-political.
Green group leader Jonathan Chilvers asked whether the move would reassure people who visit or work in the building that they would not be judged on their sexuality, saying he wanted assurance they would be judged "on their work and their character." Green councillor Sam Jones raised broader concerns that flags could be used as a form of intimidation, adding that it had become "plausible deniability to say, 'I'm a patriot', when actually what you're trying to do is intimidate people." Mr Finch said those who used flags to "cause violence" or in an "extremist way" were "wrong."
The revised policy does not require the chairman to publish explanations for decisions to refuse or permit particular flags, a point that some members of the council highlighted as a transparency concern. The cabinet vote formalised the change of responsibility after the earlier disagreement over the Pride flag; the initial incident occurred during Pride Month in June when the Progress Pride Flag was flown at Shire Hall.
Reform UK leads the council following local elections that produced a diverse composition of political groups across the county authority. The flag dispute has drawn attention to how local governments regulate civic symbols and the balance between expressions of identity and perceptions of political neutrality.
With the chairman now holding sole authority, decisions on which flags will fly at Shire Hall will be made at his discretion. The council has not set out a timetable for any further review of the policy, and there was no immediate comment from the chairman following the cabinet meeting.
