Pride Progressive Flag

General
1

Hi all. Does anyone have any update to date information about Pride Flags being flown at Council buildings please? I recall some time ago reading some information about flying the Pride Progressive Flag and that the government’s protocol was out dated as the pride flag had been updated in 2018. We have flown the progressive flag this year for the first time but have received an FOI saying it doesn’t have planning permission.

Many thanks
Andrea

2

Hi Andrea.

We fly the pride flag and have for many years, as well as the Transgender flag for International Transgender Day of Visibility, and these all need planning permission, only national flags can be flown without planning permission, have a look at Flying flags: a plain English guide - GOV.UK

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3

Hi Andrea - I concur with Civic_David, no planning permission needed for flag flying. The original Pride flag was designed in 1978 and there have been various updates over the years. As an authority, we now fly the intersex-inclusive Pride flag, but any can be flown

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4

Hi Andrea, Sheffield City Council have the Pride flag as part of its recognised commemorative flags in the protocol and the most up to date flag is flown.

5

HI - we flew the flag for a full month in June without any issues. I would have thought planning permission for he flag pole but as we call change flags regularly, it would not, I think, possible for any authority to go through the process of planning permission each time they change a flag - I might be wrong though!

6

Hi Lorraine, It maybe worth you reading Flying flags: a plain English guide - GOV.UK

I have just had to do a planning application for all our flags that were not in the government exception list, following advice from our planning team

7

Hi all - as I understand it from our legal and planning depts. There is a Gov list of permitted flags that do not need planning, that can be found here; Flying flags: a plain English guide - GOV.UK - anything else needs to have planning permission.

specifically the only Pride flag with granted Gov permission is:

  • the Rainbow flag (6 horizontal equal stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet).

There is an exception, where you don’t need to put in a planning application, if you are holding an “event” and you can evidence the event taking place, then you could fly the flag for one day only. Always best to check with your own planning and legal teams though.

Hope this helps :slight_smile:

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