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| City Hall race to get rainbow
flags flying |
Rushed proposals to allow gay
businesses to fly flag
CITY Hall has hastily pulled together a draft planning policy to
allow premises to raise the gay rainbow flag in Soho.
Westminster Council was severely embarrassed last month when its
planning committee blocked an application to fly a rainbow flag
over gay sex shop Prowler, in Rupert Street.
But now a policy, that would allow gay establishments to put the
flags over their shops, has been distributed among councillors for
consultation.
And council chiefs hope the policy will be in place by the end of
the summer.
The council has been embroiled in a row over the distinctive flags
since December last year when it emerged the planning department
had written letters threatening huge fines unless premises, including
Prowler and the Admiral Duncan pub, removed the flags.
Council officers believed they breached advertising rules.
But after facing a barrage of criticism from the gay community and
Mayor Ken Livingstone, Cllr Milton told gay establishments that
any application would be dealt with “sympathetically”.
Prowler then submitted an application but it was blocked following
advice from planning officers.
Cllr Milton was apparently livid and reported to have sent a furious
email to head of planning Gordon Chard. Cllr Milton denied the angry
email and rumours that chief whip Cllr Robert Davis telephoned Mr
Chard telling him that he should consider his position.
But now city planners have quickly drafted the policy which will
be designed to allow the flags to avoid any further embarrassment.
A Westminster press official said: “We are trying to design
something that will deal with the concerns of the gay community,
but doesn’t result in every shop in central London having a
flag.
“It will be for well defined groups who can fly flags under
defined conditions.”
Cllr Milton said: “I felt that the planning policy we had on
flagpoles was too restrictive and needed to be flexible enough to
accommodate the traditions of important groups like Soho’s
gay community.” |
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