Scottish island council removes Saltire and Union flags from town centre

ORKNEY Islands Council has removed a number of flags from Kirkwall town centre this week as it says they were put up without permission.

Union and Saltires flags appeared on poles along the front of the grounds of St Magnus Cathedral facing Broad Street.

The flags appeared overnight between Friday and Saturday.

However, they were removed by Orkney Islands Council yesterday.

A council spokesperson said permission wasn’t given for them to be put them up.

They said: “As the flags were raised on council property without the correct permissions in place, they were removed as part of normal operational business”.

It is unclear who attached the flags to the poles in Kirkwall or what the motivations were.

However, similar instances have taken place around the UK in recent weeks.

(Image: Andrew Stewart LDR)

In many cases, this has been part of the grassroots political campaign “Operation Raise the Colours”.

In Scotland’s north-east, flags have appeared in Aberdeen’s Great Northern Road and South Road in Peterhead.

As was the case in Orkney, the local council stated that the flags had been put up without permission.

As such, they were also to be taken down.