Flag vandals ‘wrecked’ future project

A community project that would have seen over 300 world flags line Stromness pier has had the wind taken out of its sails and been cancelled, after four flags were destroyed in the town on Friday.

The project — planned by Ship2Shore Orkney — would have been set up to celebrate the Olympics next month, with every single country in the world having their flag on show in a colossal line-up, from the primary school down to the pier.

The display would have run for three weeks from July 23 into mid-August, and would have involved local businesses in a flag-naming competition, as well as a promotional social media campaign welcoming tourism back into the county in the year ahead.

However, the entire project has now been cancelled, as the team behind it saw their existing flags — set up to mark the UEFA Euros football tournament — at Stromness and Kirkwall pier ripped down and vandalised on Friday, June 18, the day of the Scotland versus England football match.

Susanne Carter of Ship2Shore Orkney said they were “awfully disappointed” that the vandalism had taken place, saying that the actions of “a few folk have wrecked it for others.”

Full story in this week’s edition of The Orcadian, available now.