Photo credit: Edinburgh live
Hundreds of flags were removed from lampposts across Scotland, with many removed in Edinburgh last year as social tensions around immigration grew.
Edinburghlive reports that over 700 banners – almost all of them saltires or Union jacks – were taken down from public property by local authority workers in 2025/26, marking a huge increase on the 13 flags which were removed in the year before.
Scottish councils were forced to spend almost twenty-five pounds removing banners which could “distract motorists, damage public property, and pose risks to pedestrians”‘ reports the Daily Record.
A whopping 168 cases of flag removals were recorded in Edinburgh, the second-highest number in Scotland.
In September, officials in the capital removed several banners from the Sighthill area after anti-immigration groups were accused of fixing them to lampposts on a busy thoroughfare into the city.
But the highest number of flag removals was reported by Falkirk Council. The town became a flash point for anti-immigration protests in 2025 after a local hotel was temporarily used to house asylum seekers.
Falkirk removed 217 banners in the 12 months up to April this year, a timescale that coincided with the biggest protests in the town.
Edinburgh City Council said while there had been a spike last year, numbers began to fall from April onwards.
