PROUD Hampshire folk are being urged to help design a flag for their county.

Many counties across England, including Cornwall, Dorset and Wiltshire, have their own flags and, today, The Gazette, in partnership with our sister titles The Southern Daily Echo, Andover Advertiser and Hampshire Chronicle, is inviting readers to indulge their creative side and come up with a flag for Hampshire.

The winning design would be a people’s flag that could be flown any time and anywhere – and it would be chosen by a public vote after a shortlist of final designs is drawn up by a panel of judges.

Readers in the south of Hampshire have already submitted designs, including one featuring a Hampshire hog.

The region’s tourism experts believe a new flag would help boost the county’s national and international profile.

The Flag Institute – a national body which registers official flags – has given its support to the plan and has confirmed Hampshire does not currently have its own flag.

Graham Bartram, chief vexillologist at the Flag Registry, said: “County flags are a relatively new concept and the only reason Hampshire doesn’t have one is because it hasn’t selected one.”

Interest in finding a flag for Hampshire was sparked after our southern neighbours in Dorset and the Isle of Wight launched public competitions to design new county flags.

Hampshire County Council has two flags. However, they represent the council and therefore can only be used by it.

In 1992, a red and yellow design based on the county’s coat of arms was unveiled to mark the county’s centenary. A blue flag, based on the council’s corporate logo, has been used since 2002, and is flown at the council’s offices daily.

Any new flag would have to be unique in Britain, not subject to copyright and selected by a public vote.

Your flag design should be drawn on a piece of A4 paper and you should also provide a brief description of what the colours, shapes or images on your flag symbolise. Please include your name, age, address and contact details.

E-mail your flag design to vicky.ohare@basingstokegazette.co.uk or post them to Vicky O’Hare, Gazette Newspapers, Gazette House, Pelton Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6YD. The closing date is Friday, November 14.