Council apologises for not flying flag on St George's Day

A resident has hit out at a lack of patriotism in Ripley on St George's Day.
The St George's Cross.The St George's Cross.
The St George's Cross.

Tony Wilson criticised the town hall and All Saints Church for not flying the St George’s Cross flag on Saturday.

Mr Wilson said: “What a disgrace. It was left to the pubs to show the town’s patriotism.

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“Yet driving through Matlock on Saturday morning there was either a St George’s cross or a Union Jack every 20 yards flying proudly in the wind. Well done, Matlock.”

His comments came as the Guardian newspaper again labelled Ripley the most English of towns.

A spokesman for Amber Valley Borough Council – which owns and runs Ripley Town Hall – said: “We usually fly the flag of St George on April 23, but unfortunately an oversight meant it did not fly on Saturday.

“We would like to apologise to anyone who was disappointed not to see the flag flying this year.”

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The Rev John Wigram, vicar of All Saints Church, added: “Unfortunately we are not in the position to fly any flag on our church flagpole after a recent inspection which revealed the flagpole is causing damage to the roof and the supports are rotting.

“Since access to the roof to put up the flag is very difficult and has long been a source of concern to the church council because of the risk of injury, the church is having to remove the flagpole, which will not be replaced.

“However as this work has not yet been done we had the situation of an empty flagpole on St George’s Day, which is regrettable.”