Flags attached to streetlights lining Bridge Road in Exeter were removed on Sunday evening.
Highways officers used cherry pickers to remove the flags from streetlights that are either six or eight metres in height.
The flags, a mix of Union flags and those displaying the St George Cross, started to be removed at Sunday teatime to minimise disruption to road users. They had been placed there gradually, without permission, since August.
The removal follows a warning by Devon County Council last month about the dangers of hanging flags from streetlights.
Over the past few months CCTV has a captured a number of individuals using ladders to scale lamp columns over a number of busy roads to affix flags – in one film you could see the lamp column visibly ‘flex’ as the individual climbed the ladder.
Councillor Julian Brazil, Leader of Devon County Council said:
“We removed them because they were put up without permission and, frankly, they were a safety risk.
“Streetlights are meant for lighting, and this road carries a lot of traffic. It wouldn’t need much of a breeze for a flag, often hung eight metres up, to be dislodged and fall onto the windscreen of a moving vehicle or cyclist and cause an accident.”
He said that removing the flags took ‘significant’ council resources that could have been used elsewhere, and they were now reviewing CCTV footage to identify those responsible.
He added: “I’ve always said I absolutely support those who want to show their patriotism and if that’s putting up a flag on your own property that’s fine. But if it’s not your property, clearly you need to ask permission first, and these flags were placed without permission.”
Speaking to BBC Radio Devon today, Cllr Brazil confirmed that it costs the council anywhere in the region of between £250 to £500 to remove each flag, due to health and safety requirements.
“It costs us serious amount of money to take these flags down and I don’t see why the council taxpayers in Devon should have to pay for it.
“We will charge the people who put them up for the cost of taking them down. We have the identities of people who have put them up and will be sending them a bill.”