A COUNCILLOR has voted against red, white and blue bunting in Ledbury's streets, to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday and Armed Forces Day, because she fears it will upset foreign visitors.

She also believes that other colours would be more suitable for bunting "left up all summer".

Town and county councillor Liz Harvey made her plea at last week's full town council meeting saying the colours had upset Irish visitors to the town.

She said: "If I could make one plea, please no red, white and blue bunting."

The idea is for bunting to be flying for the Queen's official birthday of June 11, and also for the Herefordshire Armed Forces Day in Ledbury, on June 25.

Cllr Noel Roberts proposed buying in more "Union Jack" bunting, to a maximum cost of £500, and this was agreed by a vote.

Cllr Harvey voted against the proposal.

Red, white and white bunting was very much in evidence on Ledbury streets, in 2012, to mark the London Olympics and the passage of the Olympic torch through the town.

But Cllr Harvey said she had talked to Irish visitors who had felt "unsettled" by the bunting.

She said, at the meeting: "A number of people were really quite unnerved by the red, white and blue and wondered if they had walked into a National Front area, as they were used to this sort of thing in Ireland. They were quite unsettled."

But other councillors spoke out strongly for the bunting.

Cllr Elaine Fieldhouse said: "It's for the Queen's birthday, and we are red, white and blue, and that is what we'll have."

Cllr Bob Barnes said: "The events are a celebration of the Queen and Great Britain, and the members of the armed forces who fought under the Union flag."

Speaking after the meeting, Ledbury's mayor, Cllr Annette Crowe said she was half-Irish herself and added: "We are talking about our Queen and our country. The bunting should be red, white and blue."

After the meeting, Cllr Harvey said: "The mayor suggested the bunting be left up all summer. I made the request that councillors consider a wider variety of colours than those used for ceremonial and commemorative events."

She added: " My main concern was not the foreign visitors, I used them merely to example that the Union Flag bunting which Cllr Barnes had suggested at the beginning of his comments, tended to be associated with special events or nationalist sentiments."

Reports of the meeting led to hundreds of 'hits' on the Ledbury Reporter online site and scores of comments on "The Voice of Ledbury" site on Facebook, where some referred to the issue as "Buntinggate".

The vast majority of comments were in favour of red, white and blue bunting.

Comments included "Councillor Harvey has lost touch with the electorate. She should do the honourable thing and resign;" and "this is our flag and we should be proud of it."