A defiant property developer has vowed to “fight the council” after unfurling a giant 100ft flag on the local authority’s former headquarters.
Speaking to GB News, James Holmes told Martin Daubney how he has been branded “racist” and “fascist” for his display by some outraged locals.
A row between Mr Holmes and Chesterfield Borough Council ignited after he was told to take down a smaller Union flag.
Mr Holmes responded in spectacular fashion by draping a giant flag across the entire front of the building.
James Holmes has remained defiant against his local council after unfurling a 100ft Union flag over his building
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GB NEWS / FACEBOOK
Recalling how the flag row began, Mr Holmes told GB News: “We say small flag, it was 30ft across, 24ft high, so I suppose it’s relative.
“But it had a campaign through the middle of it which said ‘Fly the Flag.UK’. Because if we just put up a Union flag then people would just go ‘oh it’s a Union flag’. So we put it on there so that people would identify that we’re trying to do something, not just another flag.
He added: “So the council didn’t like that because they said ‘it’s not a flag, it’s an advertisement’. But I thought, well, I’m not just going to take it down, I own the building, let’s just see what happens.
“I’m prepared to fight the council out of principle.”
Mr Holmes originally had a smaller flag displayed on the building before replacing it with his latest display
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Criticising the council, the property developer said: “It’s funny how if you telephone the council, you’ll spend longer waiting in their queuing system than what it took for two council officers to come from the town hall, which is 100m away.
“That flag had barely rolled down to the bottom before two council officers were stood there. It takes you longer than that to get through the calling system. So I thought, ‘no, out of principle, I’m not going to do this, I’m just gonna leave it up’. If you want to waste taxpayers money, I’ll fight it out of principle.”
Asked by host Martin Daubney how locals have reacted to the flag, Mr Holmes said although it is “99 per cent positive”, but has also been called a “racist” by some residents.
He revealed: “People going past have been papping their hooters, thumbs up, and I’ve had about tens of thousands of messages. But since the new one went up, you’re always going to get some dissenters.
Mr Holmes told GB News that he has been called ‘racist’ and ‘fascist’ as a result
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GB NEWS
“Some people want to call it racist, fascist, just the easy tropes to chuck out there, and they’ve chucked them out so much that they’ve lost all their meaning, really. Somebody even vandalised the building with ‘racist’, ‘fascist’ and stuff like that.”
In a statement, a spokesman for Chesterfield Borough Council said: “It’s evident that Mr Holmes is keen to recognise our national period of Remembrance, which is something we also value highly as a council.
“We did contact Mr Holmes in relation to the previous union flags on the front, and on top of the building, as these advertised a commercial website and are therefore classed as unauthorised advertisements.
“We intend to take enforcement action if the remaining unauthorised advertisement is not removed.”