Devon Flag Could Replace EU Flag On Number Plates

The Devon flag could be used to replace EU stars on number plates after Brexit if two Westcountry MPs get their way in a debate being held in the House of Commons today.

Some British motorists are already using stickers and black tape to cover up the European Union blue and gold stars flag.

The DVLA has said it is 'too early to say' what will happen now that the UK has voted to leave the EU, heightening confusion about what will happen when the new registration numbers come out in September.

Now two Conservative Cornish MPs, Scott Mann and Derek Thomas, are supporting plans to replace the EU banner with local flags, including the distinctive Cornish St Piran's black flag or the green flag of Devon.

Under current laws, it's illegal to do so on licences or plates.

The Department for Transport said: "Until exit negotiations are concluded, the UK remains a full member of the EU and all the rights and obligations of EU membership remain in force."

The DVLA said that it's "a customer's choice as to whether or not to have a flag on their number plate".

Meanwhile, motorists across the country have decided to by-pass the confusion and manually remove the EU flags or replace them with Union flag stickers.

Covering up the EU part of the number plate isn't in itself an offence, but in general tampering with a number plate is very ill-advised.Alex Garner, road traffic law specialist at Stephensons law firm

Another said: 'Just ordered my Union flag stickers to replace EU flag on number plate (only noticed it today o'wise would have done it ages ago) #Brexit.'

But traffic law specialists have voiced concern that these motorists could be risking potential prosecution and a massive fine.

'The regulations with a number plate are very descriptive, so they have clear permitted fonts, sizes, that sort of thing,' Alex Garner, road traffic law specialist at Stephensons law firm said.

'Any attempt to cover up part of the registration number itself would absolutely be an offence.

'With covering up the flags, you have to be careful not to interfere with the visibility of the registration number. So using a reflective material like duct tape could interfere with a speed camera flash for example, or using a black masking tape in a thin strip could look like a '1' or an 'L'.

How close a series of letters or numbers are to a real name of word: if the match quality is high (and the numbers and letters are very convincing in making a popular word), the value of the registration plate will be higher. This means that a match like 5IMON, for the name Simon, will be worth a lot more than a more obscure set of letters and numbers that are not as convincing a match, such as S17 MMM for the name Sam.

The style of the plate: this means establishing if it is a new-style plate, an older-style format or if it is dateless or Irish, for instance. Other options are that it is a prefix-style plate or a suffix-style plate. New-style number plates, which have been produced since 2001, tend to be the least valuable because they are a bit less appealing to some collectors, plus the rule about not having plates that are newer than your car can also come into play, putting people off from buying a newer-style plate for their older car. Prefix-style number plates, which were in production between 1983 and 2001 can be more popular as more vehicles are entitled to have those licence numbers, and they may have fewer characters in total. Suffix-style plates, issued from 1963 to 1983 are relatively rare, which means they can attract higher prices than prefix-style plates and newer designs. Dateless number plates, also known as cherished number plates, were produced between 1903 and 1963 and are nearly always the most valuable number plate configurations; they have fewer digits and their dateless nature means that people can hide the age of their car. Irish number plates are similar to dateless number plates, especially because they don’t have a year identifier. They also tend to be cheaper than other types of vehicle registration plates.

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