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Harris · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:17 am Post subject:

This evening the Town Council will again consider flying the Union Flag daily from the Town Hall. If you have feelings either way on this subject then please do attend the meeting. Can’t find details of timings on the CTC website but would expect the meeting to start between 6:30pm and 7pm.

Chepfer · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:33 pm Post subject:

Thanks Harris.

I agree on the Canadian item. My relatives are Canadian and are over here for a visit ..... They are far more proud of there country than most of are over here.

For me ..well.. i am proud to be English not British, i feel the Scots would rather be classed as Scottish and the Welsh and Irish the same, they are proud of their roots and there own countries.

Not that i am wanting to start this thread up again ... it's run it's course i think.

Fly the flag if your proud to be British but a nice English flag would be good to !

Harris · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 11:40 am Post subject:

Does anyone know what decisions were made over this on Monday night?

Rumour has it that Councillors agreed to a study into putting 3 large flagpoles either outside the library or the town hall so that they can fly the French and German flags in honour of our twin towns. They then supposedly agreed to fly the Union Flag daily from the town hall flagpole…but wait for it…only if a member of the British Legion puts it up there. According to the grapevine they even gave the Legion £250 towards the cost of this.

Apparently the British Legion are not currently allowed on the roof to put the flag up because they haven’t been health and safety trained and are not covered by the Town Council’s insurance. So the Town Council are going to continue to send their staff up every time there is a repatriation (weekly at the moment) and on their other flag flying days.

So instead of saying to the guy next time you put it up don’t bother to go up in the evening and take it down, they’re going to keep sending him up and down (his time costs) until they have trained and got insurance for (presumably both at some cost) Legion members to go up once to put it up and leave it up.

And after 9 months of arguing that they are not going to fly a £50 flag from an extant flagpole…they are now agreeing to the possibility of erecting 3 new flagpoles at a cost of £1000s.

Surely this can’t be true even for Calne Town Council. Does anyone know?

Sticky · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 1:24 pm Post subject:

Why would this not be a surprise? The asylum has indeed been well and truly taken over!!
These eejits are becoming embarrassing……. Of course that is if any of this is actually true.

Surely to goodness even they could not consider flying other countries flags on a daily basis and exclude our own? If true this is even more proof of this anti xenophobic anti British human rights diatribe of gutter press nonsense influencing the week of mind and moral fibre.
I never thought I would almost encourage BNP/UKIP to come to Calne, but hey if they keep pushing.
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Action not words

Harris · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:20 am Post subject:

It gets better…apparently one of the Town Councillors is also a Legion member and every year he is allowed on the roof to put up the giant red poppy you see around November. He can struggle up there with a giant red poppy, but they won’t let him go up there to put the flag up, due to health and safety and insurance issues!!

…oooh…you couldn’t make it up…

Harris · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:00 pm Post subject:

Seems the rumours had some truth behind them. This embarrassing saga has now made the national press…Telegraph…Daily Mail…Mail on Sunday and is all over the internet. I seem to remember councillors proclaiming that the continued debate over the flag was silly and ridiculous. Now who is looking silly and ridiculous (?) and in front of the entire nation!!

I picked up the minutes of the Town Council meeting held 8 May which records how the councillors voted following the presentation of a petition by Calne residents asking them to allow the flag to be flown daily. Here is how your elected councillors chose to represent you:

The following voted in favour of flying the flag daily…

D Bland Priestly
J R Ireland Lickhill
Miss E Pieroux Quemerford
Mrs C Ramsey Lickhill
D Short Abberd
A J Trotman Chilvester

The following did not…

Mrs G J Ansell Lickhill
Mrs M J Baggs Priestly
C Boase Priestly
Ms H E Canfer Chilvester
R Golding Abberd
A Hill Marden
H Marshall Quemerford
Mrs A Pier Lickhill
Mrs H Plenty Quemerford
Mrs C A Robinson Abberd
Mrs A Venton Abberd
P Venton Marden
C J Viner Abberd

The councillors who refuse to represent the people of Calne have given no satisfactory reason. This calls to question the very reason these people have become councillors. If they haven’t taken their positions to represent Calne’s people then why have they taken them…glory?

This is now a national embarrassment leaving those councillors who are belligerently voting against their electorate looking utterly incompetent.

If your councillor is shown above as not representing your views then write to him or her and tell them. Their contact details are at www.calne.gov.uk.

Chepfer · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:07 pm Post subject:

Well good on em, i know where my votes going next time round ...... you should make this list public harris ......... put it up around town ........ might open a few eyes to who has any sense in this town !!!! Thumb Left

D Bland Priestly
J R Ireland Lickhill
Miss E Pieroux Quemerford
Mrs C Ramsey Lickhill
D Short Abberd
A J Trotman Chilvester

Local lass · Calnetalk Oracle Joined: 05 Jun 2007 Posts: 2845 Status:

you should put that around town harris.the whole flag thing has now become a whole bigger issue than what it really should making most town councillours look utter tits.

Attrebates · Aspiring Calnite Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 98 Status:

I have been away from the forum for a long while but I'm glad to see that Calnetalk is still going strong. (Maybe because I've been away.) Big Grin

I've been drawn to this particular thread because like many of the posters I too have a Service background and therefore a natural inclination to see the Union Flag flying proudly over our Town Hall.

I have seen some consistent and cogent discussion points put up by Harris and some nearly consistent and cogent points made by Peter Dolman as well as many heartfelt postings from a very wide selection of Calnites.

What I haven't heard is any consistent or cogent reasons put forward by councillors opposing the flying of the Flag. As Harris points out they have flipped and flopped between flying and not flying with a very wide variety of illogical reasons.

I have written to my local councillor expressing my views and requesting that my views are represented. This did not elicit the courtesy of an acknowledgement, never mind representing my views in council votes.

However, now that the National Press has highlighted the debacle (there are about 70 posts on the Daily Mail Website many of which are far less polite than on here), maybe we should allow the Town Council, who make the decisions, time to reflect on their position and provide the Town Clerk with a helping hand to extract herself from the hole in which they have placed her. (If indeed it was they that placed her there.)

I don't know for sure this got to the state that it has or how it will be resolved but resolved it has to be. Local government should be about providing the services that the electorate want in an efficient and economic manner. It should NOT be about personalities or even party politics.

Maybe the council will comprehend the depth of feeling within this community but it is more of an emotive subject than maybe some of them understand.

It's not scientific but most of the people I have asked, reflect the opinions voiced on this Forum and 100% on the Daily Mail Forum say the same thing

Let's get back to well reasoned discussion and if the Town Council really consider that they have got the handle on this maybe they should explain to the electorate why they are right and the rest of us are wrong.

Even if they are right, I fear it is going to take a major PR exercise to restore the respect of the voters of Calne. Yes there is a role for town councils even after the introduction of Unitary authorities.

iamelliot · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 1:09 pm Post subject:

there's a statement from Calne Town Council here:
http://www.calne.org.uk/blog/calne-town-hall-union-flag
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