Council bosses have been accused of being “heavyhanded” in ordering an Aberdeenshire traders group to remove colourful bunting from their town.
Independent traders group Inverurie4Ucorr put up the bunting outside in the town square, by the memorial, two weeks ago.
It is the third year the group have erected the blue, yellow, red and green strings to brighten up the town centre during the summer.
But last week council bosses contacted the group and ordered them to remove the flags amid health and safety concerns.
When Inverurie4U decided to keep the bunting in place, they received another e-mail this week – warning if it was not down by noon yesterday, the council would remove it and charge the group for the work.
Last night Cheryl Rogerson said it was “ludicrous” the authority was threatening to make a voluntary group pay for trying to do the best for their town.
Miss Rogerson, who owns clothing store Vanity, said: “Inverurie4U is an independent group of local traders who put money in from their own businesses to enhance the town and do things for the community.
“This is the third year we have had the bunting up.
“We’ve never had any issues before, this time they said it was due to health and safety.
“Surely they have more pressing issues to consider in Inverurie than a bit of bunting. There’s a lack of parking, the pavements are in a state and there’s old signs that need replaced or removed.
“The bunting makes everyone happy. It’s only up for six weeks and then we take it down again. It’s ludicrous.”
Aberdeenshire Council last night said the recent bad weather had made it all the more important for the bunting to come down quickly.
They also pointed to an incident elsewhere in Inverurie last year, where a lorry brought down an ornate street lamp after it got caught on bunting at the Don Bridge. Nobody was injured, but it cost £2,500 to repair.
Similarly in Fraserburgh, a bus ripped down bunting that had become heavy with rain.
Philip McKay, the council’s head of roads and landscape services, said: “Permission was never sought to erect the bunting, but it had been allowed in the interest of community spirit.
“An agreement was reached with organisers that the bunting would be removed last week due to concerns over public safety caused by the way it was attached to street furniture.
“It is not the case that legal action was threatened – we had however said that we would seek to recover the cost to the public of removing it if the organisers did not.
“Due to local incidents where lighting columns have been pulled down by passing vehicles, certain safety requirements have to be met and this was not done in this case. Recent weather made the situation more urgent.”
But Miss Rogerson accused the authority of being “heavy-handed” and questioned why they had never previously been told they needed to apply for permission to put up the bunting under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984.
“If that’s the issue then fine, but why hasn’t it been a problem before now?” she said.
“There are more pressing issues for Inverurie.
“It’s absolutely shameful the way they requested us to take it down, and threatening to make us pay. It’s very heavy-handed.
“It’s not about us versus them. We just want to work together to make Inverurie a nice place to visit and shop, and maintain some town spirit. It’s tough times out there and businesses are struggling, we’re doing little things to help.”