Plans for more town hall flags to mark civic occasions

Melksham Town Council is planning to expand the number of flags it can fly at the town hall to mark civic events throughout the year.

The council has applied to Wiltshire Council to fly four more flags on specific days or periods.

The proposed additions are the White Ribbon Flag, supporting the prevention of violence against women and girls; the Holocaust Memorial Day Flag; the Progress Pride Flag and the Emergency Services Flag.

Melksham Town Council adopted its Flag Flying Policy in 2025 to indicate allegiance, show support or mark significant events. A motion to add more flags to the policy was put forward by Cllr Saffi Rabey at June’s full council meeting, at a cost of £610.

Cllr Rabey said, “I would like to take advantage of getting as many flags as possible into our flag policy because obviously we just pay once and we can get all these additional flags.”

The proposal follows the introduction of the Progress Pride Flag, an updated version of the traditional Pride Flag designed to represent a wider range of people within the LGBTQIA+ community.

Cllr Phil Alford questioned whether the Progress Pride Flag had become politicised, but Cllr Jennie Westbrook said that was not its intention.

She said, “[Pride] realised it didn’t encompass everybody that fits into the LGBTQIA+ community. The whole point of the Pride flag is that each colour represents a different thing. They have now put in the triangle and the circle, the circle being representative of trans, non-binary, multi-gender, the triangle is, I believe, asexual and also Black Pride. It is to do with encompassing everybody within the rainbow rather than the initial LGBT, which is what the original Pride flag was initially created for. It may have been politicised in the last couple of years, but that is not its intention.”

The application is awaiting approval by Wiltshire Council.