Pride flag among host of banners set for Wiltshire town

Melksham Town Council sought advertisement consent to display a White Ribbon Flag, Holocaust Memorial Day Flag, Progress Pride Flag, Lest We Forget Flag, and Emergency Services Day Flag on existing flagpoles outside Melksham Town Hall. 

The flags will be flown "on specific days or periods throughout the year."

The Town Hall, located in the Market Place, falls within the Melksham Conservation Area.

Wiltshire Council said it had no objections on either safety or public amenity grounds, saying there would be no permanent visual impact.

While no details of the specific flying days were provided in the application, White Ribbon Day - which raises awareness and urges action to prevent violence against women and girls - is held annually on 25 November.

Holocaust Memorial Day is observed annually on January 27. It marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945 and remembers the six million Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust, other victims of Nazi persecution, and victims of later genocides.

Pride Month runs throughout June to celebrate LGBTQ+ communities and to mark the June 1969 Stonewall uprising.

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The Lest We Forget remembrance flag is normally flown during the remembrance period in November - particularly around Remembrance Sunday - the second Sunday in November - and Armistice Day, 11 November.

Emergency Services Day - also called 999 Day - is held every year on 9 September - the ninth of the ninth.

It recognises people who work and volunteer in the NHS and emergency services, including police, fire and rescue, ambulance, and search-and-rescue services.

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The flags require advertisement consent because England’s advertising-control regulations name only certain designs and categories of flags as exempt or automatically permitted.

While the original six-stripe Rainbow/Pride flag is specifically included in the 'deemed consent' list, the Progress Pride Flag - which keeps the rainbow background, but adds a left-hand chevron to make the inclusion of some historically marginalised LGBTQ+ groups more explicit - is not.

The Progress Pride Flag has become Wiltshire's Pride flag of choice. Wiltshire Council has consent to fly the flag at County Hall in Trowbridge and Monkton Park in Chippenham, Chippenham Town Council has permission to fly the flag at its Town Hall, and Royal Wootton Bassett town council won consent to fly it in High Street.