![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756318332_194_0_200825flag9.jpg\")
St George’s flag painted on a mini roundabout in Sale (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n“It costs public money to repair the damage, which could be better spent on vital services”St George’s flag painted on a mini roundabout in Sale (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n
Oldham Council has issued a warning to residents not to paint the St George\u2019s flag on public property. The warning comes after the symbol has appeared in several locations around Greater Manchester, including on a roundabout in Fitton Hill in Oldham<\/a>.<\/p>\n Three roundabouts in Trafford<\/a> and road junctions in Sale<\/a> were also modified with a red cross to resemble the flag.<\/p>\n Oldham Council has warned against graffiti in the borough, especially on road markings where they could pose a danger to motorists and pedestrians.<\/p>\n A spokesperson said: “We have had reports of flags being painted on some of our buildings and roads. As a council, we are proud to fly the Union flag every day, and we of course support free expression – including the flying of flags from private homes and businesses.<\/p>\n Never miss a story with the MEN’s daily Catch Up newsletter – get it in your inbox by signing up here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n “However, painting flags over public property is illegal. Marking roads and roundabouts like this is a criminal offence under Section 132 of the Highways Act 1980, which requires them to be removed due to safety and legal requirements.<\/p>\n “It costs public money to repair the damage, which could be better spent on vital services. It also presents a safety issue on roundabouts, which have strict guidance on how they should look.<\/p>\n “It is important that we honour the Union and St George’s flags and fly them properly – spraying them on the ground does not do them justice.”<\/p>\n Those responsible for painting the St George\u2019s flags in other areas of the country have claimed they were motivated by \u2018pride and patriotism\u2019.<\/p>\n Join the Manchester Evening News <\/strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> group <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\n Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham<\/a> last week suggested that people painting the crosses might be \u2018seeking confrontation\u2019. Speaking on BBC<\/a> Radio, he said: \u201cYou can obviously display a flag if that’s your choice but I don’t know, I do wonder about the times we’re living in.<\/p>\n “If people want to display it, fine on their own property, but I don’t think you’ve got the right to go out and paint public property.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“It costs public money to repair the damage, which could be better spent on vital services”St George’s flag…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,1286,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-378259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-oldham","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115102085606724206","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378259","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=378259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_200825flag8.jpg\")
(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n