Council ends flag-raising tree surgeon's contract

Billy Crotty spent weeks hanging flags along the A1198 and the villages that line the road

A parish council said it has cancelled a £9,000 contract with a tree surgeon after he put up union jack flags along a road because it was a "non-political organisation".

Billy Crotty single-handedly hung about 300 flags along a stretch of the A1198 in Cambridgeshire, close to the Hertfordshire town of Royston in September.

He had been due to remove conifers for Steeple Morden Parish Council, but the authority said "we remain neutral on the matter, and therefore felt it necessary to withdraw the contract".

Mr Crotty told the BBC: "What they've said is the exact opposite of neutral."

He went on to state: "They've taken a stance on something that I've done which is not illegal and they've made a political judgement on it."

Flags have been placed across towns and cities in the UK since mid-July in what started as a response to a schoolgirl being prevented from talking about her British roots.

Mr Crotty previously said that while the flags were partly a protest against "illegal immigration", he did not want to "intimidate anyone".

More than 100 were later taken down by Cambridgeshire County Council workers.

Mr Crotty paid for many of the flags he hung along a road himself

In response to the parish council's decision he said he had been doing work for the authority for about a decade and the most recent contract was a "substantial amount of money".

"What my personal opinions are and actions that I've done as an individual shouldn't have any bearings on my tree company.

"I think if they would have just let us go in and do the job no-one would have objected and as it turns out they've actually made the situation a whole lot worse through their actions," he added.

Nick Badger, the chair of the parish council, said: "At the time, there was intense press interest in Billy Crotty and his flag raising.

"As a parish council, we are a non-political organisation and as such we remain neutral on the matter, and therefore felt it necessary to withdraw the contract."