PROMINENT loyalist Jamie Bryson has said that a legal challenge will be launched if a nationalist-controlled Stormont department orders the removal of flags from lampposts.
Mr Bryson was speaking after dozens of Union and other flags were hoisted on lampposts across south Belfast in recent days.
The recent round of flag raising prompted calls for action from politicians, including the Alliance party's Paula Bradshaw, who spoke out after a large number were put up along a section of the Lisburn Road, which is mixed.
Ms Bradshaw said it is time the Department for Infrastructure "took the lead on removing flags from its property which have been placed with no regard for widely agreed protocols, such as that proposed by the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition, on which all parties were represented".
In response the department, which is run by Sinn Féin minister John O'Dowd, said the legislation makes it an offence to attach unauthorised flags and other items to lampposts.
A spokeswoman added that the "where unauthorised flags or attachments pose a safety hazard to road users, the department will seek to remove that danger".
She added that when complaints are received the department works closely with the PSNI and other "key stakeholders".
Mr Bryson last night said the removal of flags "would plainly be significant and controversial" adding that in line with the ministerial code "such a decision would therefore require executive, and thus unionist, approval".
“In the absence of such a approval the minister is deprived of any lawful authority to act," he said.
Mr Bryson said that if a "nationalist minister" orders the removal of flags two things would happen.
"The first is that double the amount would go back up, and secondly there is a legal case sitting drafted and ready to go, and it would be instantly lodged against DfI challenging any decision made without executive authority," he said.
The Department for Infrastructure was contacted.
