Jubilee bunting? Sorry, it’s not safe on your lamp posts

JUBILEE party plans are being threatened by a council edict demanding that lamp posts undergo tests to ensure they are strong enough to hold bunting.

The move by Lancashire County Council has been branded ‘health and safety gone mad’ amid fears that celebrations to mark the Queen’s 70-year reign could be muted.

Bureaucrats are insisting that parish and town councils shell out £55 to test any lighting column that is more than seven years old.

If they don’t pass the inspection, they can’t be used to hang decorations such as bunting, baskets and lights.

Council chiefs say the assessments are to protect the public and have always carried a fee, but local officials insist they have never been billed before and say they do not have the funds to spend.

Lorraine Beavers, Labour county councillor for Fleetwood East, said: ‘We are not going to put bunting up on lamp posts in Fleetwood for the Jubilee. It’s an added cost we don’t need on top of everything else.

‘Incredibly, the new rule also applies to the poppies we hang from lamp posts for Remembrance Sunday. They are made of plastic and weigh next to nothing.’

She estimated the cost of the tests for her area would be £5,000, which is money ‘that could have been going to Fleetwood food bank’.

‘It’s a smack in the face for everybody who gets off their backside and tries to fight for the community.’ The council has also stipulated a 20kg (44lb) weight limit for hanging baskets.

Adlington mayor Kevin O’Donnell said they would have to reduce the size of their baskets for the jubilee. ‘This is for lamp posts that happily held 50kg (120lb) baskets last year,’ he said, blasting the council’s ‘dogmatic intransigence’.

Three years ago, Lancashire County Council was embroiled in a row when it banned organisers of the Lytham Day Club gala festival from hanging bunting across roads on health and safety grounds. A spokesman for the local authority said: ‘We have an ongoing programme of testing to ensure the safety of our street lighting columns, and have written to parish councils about an update to the guidance we have in place for anyone wanting to attach items such as bunting, flower baskets and signs to them.

‘The strength of columns varies depending upon where they are in their life cycle, and it’s vital that they are tested before anything is attached to them for safety.’