Mary, 72, hits red tape for hanging up red-white-and-blue for Royal wedding
Patriotic great-granny Mary Scott has fallen foul or red tape for hanging up the red-white-and-blue to celebrate the Royal wedding.
It has created a right royal ding-dong at her sheltered block of flats in London’s East End.
The 72-year-old retired pub landlady who gets about in a wheelchair has been told to take down all 28 flags and buntings from the corridor “for health and safety” reasons.
“They’re not coming down,” she said defiantly. “William and Kate are our future—he’s our future king and I want to celebrate like David Cameron said we should
“You do something nice and you get stopped for no reason—it’s all red tape.”
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The Scots-born who ran the Beckton Arms till she had a stroke a few years ago got a letter popped under the door of her second-floor flat at Poplar’s Shaftesbury Lodge asking her to “please remove the flags on the windows for health and safety reasons.”
It comes in the face of advice from the Health & Safety Executive just two weeks ago telling the public to enjoy the Royal wedding and not let red tape ‘killjoys’ spoil the fun.
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Mary is just being patriotic. Her furious daughter Mary Jarvis, 53, a grandmother-of-six from the Isle of Dogs, now plans to write to the Prime Minister and to Poplar’s local MP Jim Fitzpatrick.
“It’s making mum ill,” said Mary junior. “She keeps crying because she’s so upset—but is determined not to take the flags down.”
The letter slipped under great-granny Mary’s door came from Shaftesbury Housing Association’s area manager Abi Ogunde, who is equally determined the 28 flags will be coming down. There were rules and regulations, she maintains, and Mary hadn’t sought permission to put the flags up in the communal area.
Ms Ogunde said: “It’s a fire risk. Some flags were hanging from the open window. There’s scaffolding up and anyone could get in.
“I took photos to show the flags were put up against regulations and have arranged for an assessment team from the housing association to examine it because of the health and safety issue.”
But the windows only open three inches, Mary Junior points out, hardly enough for anyone to climb in. The scaffolding is also several yards away from the bunting.
