‘Vandals’ claim overYes sign on statue

Unknown ‘Yes’ supporters sparked anger by using a chain and padlock to attach a campaign slogan to Cumbernauld’s iconic Arria statue.

And across the area this week hundreds of flags – both the Saltire and the Union Flag -were still being stripped from lamp-posts and other vantage points.

Reader Colin Black contacted the News to complain: “Over the last few weeks it has been evident that the Yes campaign in Cumbernauld seem hell bent on defacing the Arria statue which overlooks the A80.

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“A placard has been hung using steel chains and padlocks from approximately three metres in height.”

He added: “The fact is that public property is being vandalised at will and no one is batting an eyelid.”

On referendum polling day a team from the News witnessed men in boiler suits and hard hats running down the Union Flag from a telegraph pole on the busy dual carriageway near Cumbernauld Village.

The entire roadway between Cumbernauld and Kilsyth was lined with both Scottish and British flags, while campaign slogans were also festooned around busy roundabouts.
During the campaign it was claimed Yes supporters had been removing “No” signs from lamp-posts around the area, and by polling day Yes signs heavily outnumbered unionist ones in key areas around Cumbernauld town centre and Kilsyth.

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Unlike a parliamentary election no single party has been responsible for putting up signs, raising questions about who can be told it’s their job to make sure they are taken down.

One of the most conspicuous No messages stood close to the Spur Hotel in Cumbernauld Village, where a Union Flag flew from a lamp post while a large No sign was pasted on to an electricity box beside it.

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