Pensioner Told To Remove Union Flagpole From Allotment Over 'Health And Safety'

A green-fingered pensioner has been told to remove a Union flagpole from her allotment patch - because it breaches health and safety.

Beryl McNichol installed an 18ft flagpole in her allotment a year-and-a-half ago to fly the Union flag, the England flag during the World Cup and a 'Lest We Forget' flag for VE Day.

The grandmother-of-four, whose plot is one of up to 100 allotment plots, has since been visited by the council who demanded she take it down.

The defiant pensioner said she was hand-delivered a letter by a council official who knocked on the door and told her to take the flags down.

The first letter was delivered on April 24 and after some email correspondence a final letter was hand-delivered, by the same council worker, on April 27.

Beryl, 71, said: 'On the allotment people have everything that they are technically not supposed to. Nobody is bothered.

'When the council worker came to hand deliver the letter on April 27 he went and took the flags down himself. At the time I was flying a Union flag and a UKIP flag on the bottom.

'Nobody has complained to me about flying a political flag. Folks have complained since they have come down.

The 18ft flagpole remains on Beryl's allotment and she is eager to fly her flags again, but the council say there are health and safety issues with the pole.

She has been threatened with eviction from the allotment if the flagpole is not removed.

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Beryl, from Mansfield, Notts, added: 'Everybody on the allotments are lovely. Allotment people are nice people. They want to get on and grow their veg and pop in to see how each other are doing.

'I want to put the flags back up. On VE Day I did hoist the 'Lest We Forget' flag. I do want to fly the Union Jack flag again.

'The flags give you a moment of reflection and with the recent Nepal disaster we would have put it at half mast.

'I'll fight for my right for people to have their opinion.'

Martyn Thurman, head of neighbourhood services at Mansfield District Council, said that on inspection, they found health and safety issues over the flagpole, which is next to a public footpath, and ordered it to be removed.