Tree surgeon loses council contract after erecting 300 Union flags on Cambridgeshire road
A council tree surgeon has been removed from his job after placing several hundred union flags on an A-Road in Cambridgeshire.
Billy Crotty attached over 300 British flags to lampposts on the A1198 near Royston.
Steeple Morden Parish Council has now canceled the arborist’s £9,000 contract to remove conifers.
The council stated that the decision was made because it is a ‘politically neutral’ body and it ‘felt it necessary to withdraw the contract’.
Mr. Crotty insisted that the local authority did the opposite of remaining neutral by making a ‘political judgement’ on his signs.
He told the BBC he didn’t want to ‘intimidate’ anyone, but admitted that the flags were at least partly a protest against illegal immigration.
‘I’ve got five children to feed so it is a bit of a worry.’
Council chair Nick Badger said that Mr. Crotty’s flag activity generated ‘intense press interest’.
He said: ‘As a parish council, we are a non-political organization and as such we remain neutral on the matter, and therefore felt it necessary to withdraw the contract.’
This comes as a campaign group has been charged more than £2,300 for placing 62 English flags in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
One ‘patriot’ part of Operation Raise The Colours has now been informed he must pay £36.27 per flag plus VAT towards the cost of their removal by the local authority.
A letter to the group from the council stated that it would pursue costs regardless of whether the activists wished to retrieve the flags.
It continued: ‘Additionally, the outcome we are also seeking is that no further flags are erected, to avoid any further safety issues and so that we do not have to spend more of our limited resources on this issue which would be better deployed elsewhere.’
Operation Raise The Colours spent the weekend in France attempting to sabotage boats migrants are using to cross the channel.
At one point, they filmed themselves being chased from a migrant camp and having stones thrown at them.
Technology & Business Editor
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