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Welsh council removes flagpoles in cost cutting exercise

By Emily Price
Welsh flagpole

A Welsh council has been criticised for removing flag poles from buildings as part of a cost cutting exercise.

Powys County Council say it was costing the local authority around £20,000 a year to inspect and maintain the poles.

In January, councillors agreed to remove flagpoles from some buildings in order to save money on the compliance budget.

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'Bizarre'

A Powys resident branded the budget saving idea "bizarre" adding that the removal of a flagpole at Ysgol Llanbrynmair had upset the community council.

They said: "Powys have taken down all the flagpoles in Powys schools to save on costs. Bizarre!

"They took down the Llanbrynmair flagpole without checking it was the council's or the community council's - which it was.

"The community council are not happy and want it brought back to install somewhere else."

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Budget

A spokesperson from Powys County Council said: "Following full council’s decision as part of the annual budget setting, the council is removing the flagpoles from some council buildings to reduce the compliance budget by £20,000 per year.

"Regular safety inspections are required on flagpoles to ensure that there are no defects and comply with safety requirements.

"The inspections are paid through the compliance budget, which full council agreed to remove as part of budget savings."

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18 comments

Frank

They would probably save a lot more than £20k if they got rid of some of their six-figure salaried "executives" who have been comfortable in their jobs for years. If councils everywhere are cutting back on services they don't really need such huge workforces because the people working in those cutback services and jobs are no longer needed. Having said that it would probably result in the taxpayer financing huge redundancy payments and pensions. It's a no win situation for us as they have it all worked out to a fine art.

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Frank

Just done some online research. Powys county council employ 5,800 and the chief executive gets paid £150,000 annually. Does she really need nearly £3,000 a week to survive? What are her needs more than anyone else? She cannot do more work during a 40-hour week than anyone else.

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Jack

Seems a fair enough way to save money so long a they only took down their own flagpoles!

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Adrian

Can we please make sure they remove all those god-awful 'pride' flags? They're like the modern-day Swastika.

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Iago

Swastikas are the modern day swastika

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Adrian

…but they’re not flown from council buildings are they?

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Karl

Kindness compared to a Nazi flag. What is wrong with you?

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Adrian

You think it’s kind to chemically castrate children?

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In reply to Adrian

Karl

Making things up there is vile and hateful. Keep your fascist style lies to yourself

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Welsh Patriot

Agreed, I am gay and I am fed up with the so called pride flags everywhere. As for being part of the wider gay community, I have zero in common with most on the new flag. To my mind the triangle bit at the side on the new gay flag, looks more like a nod to the Palestine flag.

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Ian

Shameful, we should be seeing more of our beautiful flag not less.

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Y Cymro

According to Powys Council it's a cost cutting exercise lol? Sorry, but what a load of BS. £20,000 to inspect flagpoles the reason to down poles. I've never heard so much wind expelled since I had the misfortune once of walking in front of Neil Kinnock out leafleting for YesCymru. And as others have said. Powys councilors need to look at their little perks of work before resourcing to such drastic actions such as this.

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Riki

How about we start charging 90% tax to earners over a million quid ( like 50s and 60s America). Instead of letting the super rich holding our economy hostage. 1st decouple the need for employers to only employ people with bank accounts. This simple step will ensure the super rich can't benefit off of the means of others. This in turn will once again give government's the authority rather than corporations and banksters. If they threaten mass unemployment by outsourcing to other nations, simply fine them into the dust, others will rise to take their place so no loss, and the fine money can be used to take care of their unemployed until other employment can be found.

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Karl

I wonder how much removal will costs. 20k to inspect, seems bizarre. Surely any maintenance staff on site, can take seconds to check monthly.

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Ben Davies

Take down your Jacks and leave our national ones. Not a bad thing. But I bet that's not what they're up to. Only taking down some but saving 20k. Crickey how much does it cost per flagpole? How many flagpoles are we talking about? This smells a bit fishy.

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Frank

Anything the council does is ever cheap.

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L H

Budgets are cut yet salaries increase. Some sort of fancy accounting !!!!

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Michael

I think it is stupid to take our flag down sometimes you go to towns and cities and see our flag hanging on various poles shopping centres different areas give you that nice feeling to see you and now we got these doers who get paid to make good decisions for the people and the country It makes me wonder why they get paid so much to think of these silly situations and ideas. God help us it’s supposed to be in charge and guide us looking after all the people of wales😤😫🤪🙏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

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According to Powys Council it's a cost cutting exercise lol? Sorry, but what a load of BS. £20,000 to inspect flagpoles the reason to down poles. I've never heard so much wind expelled since I had the misfortune once of walking in front of...

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