Notts neighbour hits back at veteran who hung ‘nuisance’ Union Jack flag in his garden

The neighbour of a Nottinghamshire gulf war veteran who allegedly was “forced” to remove a union jack from his property has spoken out about the “nuisance” the flag was causing.
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Patriotic Andrew Smith, 51, installed the flag on a pole in tribute to Great Britain after serving six years in the Royal Signals.

But following a complaint by one neighbour on his estate, he says he received a letter from housing developer Harron Homes ordering him to take it down.

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The father-of-two has so far complied with the notice but is now fighting back because he is “proud to be Britsh”.

Andrew Smith installed the flag on a pole in tribute to Great Britain after serving six years in the Royal Signals.Andrew Smith installed the flag on a pole in tribute to Great Britain after serving six years in the Royal Signals.
Andrew Smith installed the flag on a pole in tribute to Great Britain after serving six years in the Royal Signals.

He says the neighbour asked him to take it down because it was “spoiling his view”, however the neighbour has spoken out in defence of his actions.

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Notts Gulf War veteran ordered to take down Union Jack flag from his garden - be...

He also says that the agreement with Harron Homes prior to moving into the Sandlands estate was that no items of that size could be displayed in the estate, suggesting that “if everyone had one up, nobody would be able to see anything”.

He said: “The day he put the flag up I had asked him to remove it because where he placed it was outside my garden and was where he couldn’t even see it himself.

Andrew had flown the flag at his previous address without incident for 10 years.Andrew had flown the flag at his previous address without incident for 10 years.
Andrew had flown the flag at his previous address without incident for 10 years.
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“I didn’t know he was a veteran or have a problem with the union jack flag itself, my wife just had been around twice that day to ask for it to be removed but she got no answer.

“I made the point when I spoke to him that, if everyone put a flag up, nobody would be able to see anything.

“He has put it on Facebook that we demanded he takes it down, but we don’t have Facebook and feel what he said was unfair.

“Every window we looked out of we could see the flag but it was behind his garage so he could barely see it.

“It was 20 feet high and the agreement with the developer Harron on the estate was that we can’t have anything like that up, and he should know this, which is why it was taken down.”