Landlord vows to fight after time called on seafront flags

John Cropley, who runs the Forth View bar in Portobello, says he is determined to keep four of the original eight international flags he began flying outside his business last year.

Earlier this month, councillors ordered the bar to take down the flagpoles after a neighbour complained of their "cluttered and fussy appearance".

However, Mr Cropley claims he was only informed about the order after it was approved - giving him no time to make an appeal or represent himself in front of planning officials.

He now intends to draft up a petition signed by regulars and local residents if the council does not allow him to keep at least some of his flags flying.

The bar, which was built on the site of a shop and the former public toilets on the seafront at King's Place, was only opened last May and the flags were put up over the summer after being donated by visitors and tourists.

Mr Cropley added: "They are a welcoming sight for people visiting the bar and I don't know how anyone could claim they are having a bad effect on the area or that they are an eyesore.

"After all, there is a giant skip just up the road which is causing more of an eyesore on the seafront than a few flags.

"I haven't had anyone who has said they have had a problem with the flags at all.

"If anything, they've been very popular and helped make the bar a welcoming place on the seafront."

He said a neighbour had asked him to take down one of the flags that was flying next to his window as he was trying to sell his home.

"I immediately agreed and actually took down two of them so that his view from the flat wasn't impaired, but within a couple of days I had council staff coming to the bar and telling me to take down two more as they had received a complaint.

"As we never received anything on paper, we thought nothing more about it until we read that a report was going to the council to get rid of all of the flags. Since then, we've had kids trying to tear down the poles because they think they're going to be coming down anyway.

"I've already told the council I'm happy to just have four flags here and I've spoken to their enforcement officers, who have agreed to that. "I don't understand why I now have a letter telling me that they're going to issue a report to take action to get rid of all the flagpoles."

Local councillor Lawrence Marshall, who sits on the planning committee, said he would be happy to see some of the flags retained, but added that the six that are currently flying made the promenade building look "too cluttered".

He added: "I think if the landlord comes back to the planning committee or to the enforcement officers and agrees to keep just four of the flags, he will be allowed to.

"I don't have a problem with keeping a few of them because they add a bit of colour to the seafront.

"However, it is not a big building and you can't go over the top with it. I'd like to see some kind of negotiation and compromise to be found over this."

No-one from the council's development enforcement department was available to comment.