"We’ll apologise if you find it offensive - but for us, we find it patriotic" Saint George and Union Jack flag campaign across Chesterfield helps raise funds for Ashgate Hospice
The campaign that has seen Saint George and Union Jack flags appear across Chesterfield is helping to raise funds for Ashgate Hospice – with a four-figure sum already being donated.
Peter Ireson and Glen Hardy helped to start the recent emergence of St George and Union Jack flags in the area, which began in Brimington and Old Whittington and has since spread across Chesterfield and Derbyshire.
Peter, who lives in Brimington, revealed that people had offered to donate money towards the flags. Instead, they had the idea to encourage people to support a fundraiser that has been set up for Ashgate Hospice instead.
The 63-year-old said: “People were trying to give us money, so we’ve set up a fundraiser for Ashgate Hospice. We didn’t want people giving us money, so we set up a fund for the hospice. In five days it’s generated around £1035, and it’s still going up.”
Peter stressed that the appearance of the flags aims to pay tribute to armed forces veterans - and condemned any racist comments that have been made in connection with the campaign.
He said: “We’ve been having racist comments - we want people to know that this isn’t a racial event. We’re doing it in part for our war veterans - we’re putting flags up for them too at the war memorials we can find, because we feel like they’ve been forgotten.”
Peter added that he wanted to see flags installed at war memorials across Chesterfield and Derbyshire - which he believed would help honour the memory of those who had died in defence of their country.
He said: “We’re hoping to start campaigning for flag poles to be installed at the war memorials in our villages. I feel that these people have earned the right to have a flag flown above the memorial, above those who sacrificed themselves for that flag.
“There’s a lot of war memorials in Derbyshire that need to be recognised. We should be allowed to fly the flag above those who have fallen - that’s one of my concerns and it’s not recognised enough.
“I’ve already been to the memorial at Brimington and put flags up there, and you should’ve seen the faces of the older people there - they loved it. Villages should recognise this and let them know that our generation hasn’t forgotten them. We need to get them sorted - some of the war memorials look desolate.
“We’ve got Remembrance Sunday in November, hopefully these flags will still be flying at that time. We’ve had one or two people that have said they don’t like the flags. For people like that, we’ll apologise if you find it offensive - but for us, we find it patriotic.”
Derbyshire County Council also confirmed on Thursday, August 28 that it was not responsible for the removal of a number of flags that had been attached to footbridges along the A61 in Chesterfield, between Tesco on Lockoford Lane and the Horns Bridge Roundabout.
The link to the fundraiser can be found here.