A parish council in Cambridgeshire has sparked outrage after abruptly axing a long-standing contract with a tree surgeon, all because he put up Union flags and St George’s crosses.
Billy Crotty, a tree surgeon from Wimpole in Cambridgeshire, had hung around 300 flags on lamp posts near Royston in Hertfordshire.
His small business had worked for Steeple Morden Parish Council for more than 10 years, most recently being hired to remove conifers.
But the council, seemingly desperate to assert its “neutrality”, decided that Crotty’s patriotic display somehow threatened its status as a “non-political organisation”. In a move widely seen as petty and heavy handed, the authority cancelled his £9,000 contract entirely.
‘They’ve made a political judgment’
Crotty says the council’s behaviour is anything but neutral. “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 told the BBC, calling the decision “the exact opposite of neutral”.
He said the flags were partly a protest against “illegal immigration”, though he stressed he did not want to “intimidate anyone”.
The flags form part of Operation Raise the Colours, a campaign encouraging displays of national flags across the country. Crotty insisted that his personal beliefs should not affect the work his business carries out.
“What my personal opinions are and actions that I’ve done as an individual shouldn’t have any bearing on my tree company,” he said.
“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, “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.”
Lib Dem run council removes flags in late night sweep
The dispute follows a separate incident in September when Cambridge County Council, a Liberal Democrat authority, removed more than 100 of Crotty’s flags, sending workers out late at night to strip them from lamp posts.
Crotty filmed the removals and posted the footage online, asking the workers to return the flags they had taken.
“So in an almost Gestapo-like operation last night at around 11pm, the majority of our flags were taken down and despite my pleas they refused to give them back,” he said.
He has said public reaction to the flags was “99 percent positive”.
Parish council attempts to justify decision
Nick Badger, chairman of Steeple Morden Parish Council, claimed the authority had no choice but to pull the contract.
“At the time, there was intense press interest in Billy Crotty and his flag-raising,” he told the BBC.
“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.”
The council has been accused of hiding behind what critics call “performative neutrality” while punishing a contractor for displaying patriotism.
