![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755184337_952_grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bba42e30-79c6-11f0-8827-ede848a7813c.jpg.webp.webp\")
BBC<\/p>\nShannen Headley<\/p>\n
BBC News, West Midlands<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n
Birmingham City Council said “unauthorised items” being hung on street furniture could be dangerous <\/p>\n
England and union flags being flown across parts of Birmingham are being taken down due to maintenance works.<\/p>\n
Locals hanging the Union Jack and St George’s Cross in the Weoley Castle and Northfield areas of the city said they were doing so in an act of patriotism. <\/p>\n
But Birmingham City Council issued a safety plea to residents attaching the flags to lampposts and other street furniture.<\/p>\n
It said it was upgrading streetlights to energy-efficient LED lighting and had so far removed about 200 banners and flags.<\/p>\n
A statement issued by the council said the work would reduce energy use and lower maintenance costs. <\/p>\n
It said: “Work is due to begin imminently, and lamp columns need to remain free from attachments so work can be carried out as quickly and safely as possible.<\/p>\n
“People who attach unauthorised items to lampposts could be putting their lives and those of motorists and pedestrians at risk.<\/p>\n
“We [are] continuing to do this every week and would ask that staff doing this work are allowed to continue this work unhindered.”<\/p>\n
‘Potential for collapse’<\/p>\n
The council’s plan has sparked an online debate from residents of Weoley Castle. <\/p>\n
One person said they loved seeing the flags around the neighbourhood, adding “unfortunately the council own the lampposts so it’s their property.”<\/p>\n
A fundraiser has been organised by campaigners Weoley Warriors to raise money for more flags. With more than \u00a34,000 gathered so far – the group said its aim was to “give hope to local communities”.<\/p>\n
But the council’s statement said placing “unauthorised attachments” on street furniture could be dangerous – adding that “stress tests” were carried out by the council ahead of celebrations in the city. <\/p>\n
It said: “Lampposts are engineered for their specific purpose, and adding extra weight or stress from flags and attachments can cause them to weaken over time, potentially leading to collapse.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shannen Headley BBC News, West Midlands BBC Birmingham City Council said “unauthorised items” being hung on street furniture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-346580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115032907229503871","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}