Greenwich’s Labour and Conservative leaders have united to criticise the “tedious and disingenuous culture war” spread in the media over a chip shop’s Union Jack mural.
Anthony Okereke and Matt Hartley set aside election campaigning at last week’s council meeting following repeated stories wrongly claiming that the owner of the Golden Chippy on Greenwich High Road had been ordered to remove a mural because it featured a Union Jack.
The chip shop is in the tightly-policed Ashburnham Triangle conservation area where any changes to buildings – including murals – have to be approved by the council.
BBC London, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, GB News and the News Shopper all ran stories about the mural in the last two weeks of March.
The Golden Chippy was once named the best in London and has an eye for publicity – a similar story appeared in the Evening Standard in 2018, this time about a 17-foot sign above the shop also bearing a Union Jack.
Conservative leader Hartley – who said the shop sold “cracking fish and chips” – told the meeting: “This media coverage continues to appear despite the story being repeatedly and comprehensively debunked.
“These stories continue to be shared and pushed online by individuals who are trying to create some kind of tedious, disingenuous culture war.
“The council’s request for the mural to be removed is a simple and straightforward and really quite boring planning enforcement issue relating to the conservation area. The fact the Union Jack happens to appear on this mural has absolutely nothing to do with the council’s request for it to be removed.”
“Our residents rightly expect that everyone should play by the same rules when it comes to the planning system. So would the leader agree with me that this issue is actually a simple question of that good old fashioned British sense of fair play.”
Okereke, the Labour leader of the council, responded: “This council is extremely proud of our country. I would reiterate, we have not asked the business to remove the advert because of the presence of a Union Jack. This is not a culture war and it would be disingenuous to state otherwise as certain media outlets have suggested.
“Rather, we have taken action against an advert placed in a conservation area without planning permission. It is therefore a straightforward planning enforcement issue. Sometimes in local government, things are really boring – just not in this case.”
BBC London coverage used by arrangement with BBC Local News Partnerships.
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