Pub seeks permission to keep painted St George flag

A landlord has applied for permission to keep a St George cross which is painted on the front of his Grade II listed pub.

Jerry Kunkler, who runs The Moonrakers Inn, in Pewsey, Wiltshire, said he first painted the 17th Century pub with a red cross for the 2016 FIFA Club World Cup and re-painted it for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Wiltshire Council launched an investigation into the paint job after a complaint in November 2025 which said the pub looked like "the headquarters of the National Front".

Kunkler was informed he was in breach of planning rules and has now submitted a retrospective application for planning consent. The council is expected to make a decision by March.

The National Front is a far-right, whites-only political party whose major activities were focused on the 1970s and 1980s.

In a statement to planning officers, Kunkler said: "I arranged for the painting of the cross in 2016 for the football World Cup finals in Japan.

"Apart from the two years of Covid, the red cross has been on the pub for over nine years. Nothing's been said about it until now."

Kunkler, who is a Wiltshire councillor, said previously he believed the complaint was "all about the controversy" surrounding flags being put up across the country - something he said the pub's flag had "nothing to do with".

"The Moonrakers Inn is a sports bar," he said. "I support everything England and this pub has been a venue for all those who want to watch England play - whether it is in the men's or women's football World Cup, men's or women's rugby World Cup and Six Nations, and of course the men's and women's Euros."

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