The furious owner says our country’s flag ‘should be celebrated not censored’.
Cookies’ Corner owner Nina Stevenson says she will fight New Forest District Council (Image: BNPS)
A businesswoman has been told to remove a Union Jack image from an outside wall of her café by her local council. The flag image at Cookies’ Corner in New Milton, Hampshire, is believed to have sparked a complaint the patriotic display was a racial slur.
An anonymous complainant is believed to have reported the artwork to the local council which contacted Cookie Corner’s owner Nina Stevenson. Officials told her the image and another of a St George’s flag breached advertising planning rules.
Owner Nina Stevenson took down the lion image (Image: BNPS)
Ms Stevenson, 52, was given the choice of either removing them or applying for planning permission to keep the signs.
The outraged café owner argued pictures of a hungry customer and a shark sharing a baguette below the offending images had been in place for four years and hadn’t caused a fuss.
She said New Forest District Council called her to say she needed planning permission for any picture on the side of her building.
Ms Stevenson said the same picture of a Union Jack and lion appears on the side of the café’s sandwich van which drives around industrial estates. The original four images were created by a professional signwriter.
She claimed: “One woman recently told our driver it was a racial slur. I bet it is the same person who has complained now.
“It is utterly ridiculous. I am proud to be British. This is our country’s flag, it should be celebrated not censored.”
Orignally, the Union Jack sign appeared alongside an image of a lion, but in a gesture of goodwill Ms Stevenson altered the ad to show just the flag picture. But this was still a breach of the advertising planning rules.
The businesswoman vowed not to give in, adding: “They will have to take me to court. I know I am in the right. We have been here for 24 years. I can’t believe we have reached this point.”
A planning enforcement officer at New Forest District Council told Ms Stevenson the images of the shark and baguette may be okay because they refer to activity at the premises. But the other two patriotic displays apparently don’t.
A council spokesperson said: “Following a complaint received from a member of the public, we investigated and found that two advertisements were being displayed, consisting of adhesive vinyl applied externally to ground floor windows of a business premises.
“These advertisements do not fall within the parameters of deemed consent under the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 and were therefore unauthorised.
“In accordance with our local enforcement plan, the proprietor was requested to remove the unauthorised advertisements or seek advertisement consent retrospectively for their continued display.”
It is the latest row amid the Operation Raise the Colours campaign which has seen Union and St George’s flags raised by the public on lampposts across the country.
Supporters argue the flag-raising are spontaneous displays of patriotism while critics insist the campaign is divisive, racist and anti-immigrant.
Councils around the country have come under fire for removing flags from street furniture and scrubbing red lines off mini-roundabouts.
