Roadside flowers can stay 28 days with no permission needed under Brighton's redrafted memorials policy. Memorial tree applications close on 30 September.

Flowers left at the side of a road or in a Brighton park can stay for 28 days without anyone needing to ask permission, double the 14 days first proposed. The change is in a redrafted memorials policy going back to the Place Overview & Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 8 September, before it goes to Cabinet for approval.

The policy covers everything commemorative on council land: plaques, public art, benches, trees, gardens, roadside tributes and historic memorials including statues. It does not apply to private land or property.

A first draft went to the same committee on 24 March 2026. Councillors pushed back, and the version published this week makes five changes.

What changed after March

  • The removal window goes from 14 days to 28 days.
  • Spontaneous displays need no permission at all unless they are intended to stay beyond 28 days.
  • Better signposting of the memorial options already available in the city’s cemeteries.
  • The council’s existing roadside memorial policy, dating from around 2015, is folded in rather than sitting separately.
  • A “historically significant” exception to the 20-year rule, with the draft giving a Covid memorial as the example.

The 28-day rule, and its limits

The draft says a “small, peaceful and spontaneous display of flowers or similar temporary tributes on council land does not require advance permission where it can be accommodated safely”, and that this “avoids placing an unnecessary administrative burden on people who may be grieving”.

Tributes will normally be accepted for up to 28 days. The council can remove them earlier where a display reaches capacity, creates a health and safety risk, obstructs access, damages council property or the environment, or causes another significant operational concern. Where practicable, items will be removed sensitively and recyclable material recycled. After 28 days, City Parks removes them, or Environmental Services if they are on the highway.

Officers will “seek to contact the bereaved within 28 days” about temporary flower displays.

Permission is needed for anything more than flowers. The draft lists tables, gazebos, barriers, lighting, amplified equipment, large containers, fixed signage, items attached to trees or street furniture, and any display meant to stay beyond 28 days. Larger gatherings may also need event, licensing, planning, highway or police arrangements.

The council can remove something immediately if it creates an immediate risk to public safety, blocks a pavement, cycle lane, carriageway, entrance, emergency route or accessible route, prevents the ordinary use of a bench or other public facility, or is fixed to a tree, statue, railing or lamppost without permission in a way that creates risk or damage.

For roadside and collision-site tributes specifically, nothing may be fixed to highway infrastructure without permission, and the Highway Authority decides whether a display creates an unacceptable risk. The draft promises sensitive communication before removal “where practicable”, but allows immediate action where safety requires it.

Benches and trees: what the rules actually say

This is the part most readers will need.

Benches. The donation scheme applies only to new benches, at locations the council offers or agrees. An approved plaque can go on a new donated bench, but new plaques will not be added to existing benches unless a specific approved scheme allows it. Design, location, wording, highway implications and maintenance costs all have to be agreed before approval. Benches must stay available for public use, and anything that prevents that can be removed immediately.

Trees. Donations go through the council’s Tree Trust Fund. You can pay the full cost of planting a tree or contribute any amount towards the city’s tree planting programme. Species, sites and suppliers must be council-approved to protect biosecurity.

Two dates matter here:

  • Applications close on 30 September. Requests received after that are logged for the following planting season.
  • Planting takes place between November and March.

Trees proposed on the highway need a site assessment covering underground equipment and whole-life maintenance. Memorial plaques and the scattering of ashes are not permitted around donation planting in parks and open spaces, and informal memorial planting and plant donations are not accepted there either.

Permanent memorials: eight weeks, 20 years, and you pay

For anything permanent, the draft sets out a clear process:

  • Applicants must consult before applying and demonstrate community support. The council’s Community Cohesion Team can help.
  • The application normally takes eight weeks from the initial application, once all documents and permissions are in place.
  • Applications are assessed on historical and cultural significance, impact on the landscape, accessibility, safety, environmental factors, and how many memorials there already are in that area.
  • Commemorative memorials face a 20-year wait after the event or death, “to ensure future historical relevance”, unless the historically significant exception applies.
  • There is a 28-day appeals process if an application is refused.
  • Applicants pay for everything. The policy is explicit that all costs of installation, repair and ongoing maintenance are fully funded by the applicant, which is why officers say it creates no additional revenue pressure for the council.

The draft also handles contested heritage. Routine maintenance of an existing memorial stays an operational matter, but any campaign to remove, relocate or materially reinterpret a permanent memorial because it is contested “must be referred through political channels” with legal, heritage, planning and public-law advice. Officers are told not to treat such a request as routine maintenance or as an ordinary temporary-memorial removal.

For new statues and permanent public art, the draft says “contemporary and non-figurative approaches to commemoration should be considered where they offer a stronger response to place, community and context”.

What it means for you

  • If you are leaving flowers, you do not need to ask anyone. You have 28 days, as long as the display is safe and does not block access.
  • If you want something more than flowers, ask first. Anything fixed to a lamppost, tree or railing, and anything meant to last, needs permission and can be removed without notice if it does not have it.
  • If you want a memorial tree this winter, apply by 30 September. Miss it and you wait a year.
  • A memorial bench means a new bench in a place the council picks, not a plaque on the bench you have in mind.
  • Budget for the long term. Installation, repair and ongoing maintenance are all on the applicant.

The Place Overview & Scrutiny Committee meets at 4pm on Tuesday 8 September at Hove Town Hall, BN3 3BQ. It is being asked to note the report; the policy then goes to Cabinet for formal approval.

Sources