Council Sacks Tree Surgeon For Putting Up Union Jack Flags

A council tree surgeon has been sacked after putting up several hundred Union Jack flags and St. George’s crosses on an A-Road in Cambridgeshire.

Billy Crotty, from Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, attached 300+ British flags to lampposts on the A1198 near Royston, in Hertfordshire.

His tree surgeon business had been working with Steeple Morden parish council for more than a decade, but the council has now cancelled their £9,000 contract with Crotty, who had been commissioned to remove conifers.

The council decided that Crotty’s flag-sh@gging antics threatened its neutrality as a “non-political organisation” and so ‘felt it necessary to withdraw the contract’.

Crotty said the council’s decision was “the exact opposite of neutral”, telling the BBC: “They’ve taken a stance on something that I’ve done which is not illegal and they’ve made a political judgment on it.”

He explained that flags were in part a protest against “illegal immigration”, but he did not want to “intimidate anyone”.

He added: “What my personal opinions are and actions that I’ve done as an individual shouldn’t have any bearing on my tree company.

“It seems to me like a bit of virtue-signalling really. It’s obviously cost my family because it’s food off our table, really. I tried to reason with them but they just weren’t having any of it. They told me it was nothing to do with my work and they were happy with it, it was just to do with the flags.

“I did say there was nothing illegal about what I had done, but they didn’t listen.”

Back in September, Cambridge county council took down more than 100 of the Union Jack flags and St George’s crosses put up by Crotty, in a move he branded a “Gestapo-like operation” when ranting about it on Facebook after.

At the end of the day, Crotty was paid £9,000 by the council to make roads safer and cleaner, not plaster them with over 300 flags. You just know the council is going to consider that controversial, so of course it’s going to impact your work prospects with them. Now he’s whining about food off his family’s table, but he only has himself to blame. Surely anyone with a brain would have seen the conflict of interests there?

Classic case of play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Plenty of good contractors out there who will do the work properly and drama-free.

For the man who spent 6 hours painting a massive St. George Cross on his house after someone tore his flag down, click HERE.