TWO memorial flagpoles that were 'stolen' from a disused military base were actually confiscated by the council.
HMS Gosling was a base that housed soldiers from across North America during the Second World War, and later became a country club.
The club was in use from the 1960s, under the name of Glazebrook Country Club, but it later changed its name back to HMS Gosling.
During its heyday, the club could support 2,000 people and was known for its connection with a number of iconic celebrities including the Glen Miller band and Dame Vera Lynn.
In the 1990s the land was ransacked by travellers and the country club - which was a wedding venue and clay pigeon hub at the time - was closed.
Trustees of the disused military base erected flagpoles in 2018 and flew flags in order to mark the service of US and Canadian troops during World War Two.
However, the flagpoles were found to have been 'stolen' ahead of this year's ceremonial raising of the flags for Remembrance Sunday.
This prompted the trustees to coin the event 'the Last Post... literally.'
Now, however, it appears that the mystery of the 'stolen' flags has been solved.
It would seem that the flags and flagpoles were taken by none other than Warrington Borough Council.
Following investigations by the Warrington Guardian, it was revealed that the council took the action of removing the flagposts from outside the base.
A spokesperson for Warrington Borough Council said: "The flag posts were erected on adopted highway and after numerous attempts to contact the registered owner we removed them on safety grounds."
Further communications between the Warrington Guardian and the council highlighted that the trustees of the camp have in fact been in contact with council officers since 2019, and the trustees claim that no attempt at communicating with them had been made.
This is what led the trustees to claim that the flags and flagposts had been 'stolen' in the first place.
HMS Gosling has been the source of planning application controversy in previous years, with the trustees of the camp hoping to gain permission to transform the camp with residential buildings.
They say this would allow relatives of US and Canadian veterans to visit where their family members served.
The planning applications were refused by Warrington Borough Council at the time.
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