Unauthorised flags

For the period from 1 July 2025 to the latest date for which records are held at the time of your search (please state the end date used), please provide:

1. The total recorded spend incurred by the Council in removing unauthorised flags from public land or the highway, broken down (if held) by: staff time/recharge rates, contractor costs, vehicles/materials, disposal, overtime.

2. The number of incidents/jobs where unauthorised flags were removed, with date and ward or postcode sector for each (no exact addresses required).

3. The job/incident category codes and cost centre/recharge codes used for these removals (e.g. fly-posting/illegal signage/unauthorised banner).

4. The current schedule of rates (or equivalent) used by the Council/its contractor for removal of illegal signage/flags.

5. Any policy/guidance/SOP in force during the period for identifying and removing unauthorised flags, including the legal basis (e.g. Highways Act 1980 s132 / Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regs 2007).

6. If you do not hold a discrete 'flag' category, please extract cases recorded under flyposting/illegal signage/unauthorised banners where the free-text notes contain 'flag', 'Union Jack', 'St George's Cross', 'England flag' (or combinations thereof) for the period.

If the request would exceed the appropriate cost limit, please:

* Provide items (1)-(2) as aggregated totals for the period;

* Provide (3)-(5) in full; and

* Advise what shorter date range or narrower category would be disclosable within the limit.

1. Lincolnshire County Council as Highway Authority have not instructed the removal of any flags from the public highway.

2-3. N/a

4. The schedule items for sign removal are below with rates omitted as this is commercially sensitive information. These items would be applicable to the removal of unauthorised signs within the highway. No schedule of rates exists for the removal of flags.

See attached table

5. Please see attached document "HGD 1.7 Appendix A - Enforcement and Prosecutions Manual - Obstructions of the Highway". While not specifically related to flags, this document explains the basis of enforcement of unauthorised objects within the highway.

6. Please refer to the response to Q1.

Should you require the attachment mentioned above please contact customerinformationservice@lincolnshire.gov.uk with the below reference number and this can be provided.