Pubs amongst businesses that could advertise on Reform’s controversial banners

Pubs are among the businesses that could soon advertise on Reform’s controversial Union Flag banners in a move the council claims will make them money.

Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council made news in October 2025 when it announced it would be spending £75,000 on 164 Union Flag banners to be displayed in 82 locations across the county.

Since then, the spend has drawn criticism from opposition members on the authority who have labelled it as a “waste” of taxpayers money.

In Reform’s February budget meeting, Conservative leader of the opposition, Councillor Sam Smith, said the authority could have filled in “one thousand” potholes for that price.

But council leader Mick Barton says “there is absolutely” the opportunity for the banners to bring in some income for the council – and multiple businesses have already reportedly shown interest in using them to advertise.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Friday (February 27th), Councillor Barton said: “We have had a lot of businesses contact us about having a couple of the banners, and they want them outside their business.

“They would pay the market going rate for the banners as long as they’re advertising their business.

“We’ve had three or four pubs, a factory, a café, a couple of restaurants and I think we’ve had a warehouse.

“If you can have a banner that everybody can see up on a lamppost, I think it’s a good point. We didn’t think of that initially, or how big that would be, but it does seem to have blown up.”

Coun Bert Bingham (Ref), cabinet member for highways, said: “We see them as ‘investment in marketing’ banners. They’re multi-use.”

Coun Barton did acknowledge that whether the county council should allow businesses to advertise on the banners may have to go through a full council meeting.

The actual cost of the banners themselves is around £16,000, while nearly half of the £75,000 spend is for the replacement of the brackets that hold the banners onto lampposts. The rest of the sum covers taking them down, maintenance and other contingencies.

Coun Barton says in May or June, 2026, the council will be putting up ‘Kinship carers’ and foster caring banners to encourage people to look after children.

He said: “It’s not about the money, but if you took one child out of one of these care homes, into a loving home, it’d save between £200,000 and £250,000 a year.

“So to talk about the monetary value of the banners, the actual banners only cost us £16,500.”

The council would need to obtain planning permission from each district and borough council in Nottinghamshire for banners to be used as advertising in their areas.

In January 2026, the council said there were existing sites with planning approval, but was yet to go through the formal application process.

The leader says his council “is now working on” getting these applications in.