![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/the-jolly-potters-pub.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAn army veteran turned pub operator has been ordered to repaint his boozer after the council ruled its “poppy red” features breached “conservation area guidelines”.<\/p>\n
James Elliot took over the Jolly Potters in Stoke-on-Trent around three months ago and spent more than \u00a315,000 on renovations to transform it into a “community, family-friendly pub”.<\/p>\n
Part of this makeover included painting the windowsills and door frame of the pub in a “poppy red” colour, in a nod to his six-year-long army service.<\/p>\n
He also arranged for an artist to paint a Stoke City Football Club mural on the wall of the beer garden and a Stoke City crest on one of the external walls.<\/p>\n
However, Mr Elliot says Labour-run Stoke-on-Trent City Council has threatened enforcement action unless the pub is returned to a more muted palette, due to it being located within the Hartshill Conservation Area.<\/p>\n
The pub operator says he must instead choose from a list of “British Standard References for paint”, which includes cream, ivory, pale grey, soft white, and pink.<\/p>\n
He told GB News: “It has cost me over \u00a315,000 to do stuff to bring the pub back to life. <\/p>\n
“I don’t know if it is my army-head, but it just seems a lack of common sense – it sits next to a bed shop that has red fences and I’m next to a Tesco and Esso petrol station.” <\/p>\n
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:<\/p>\n
The pub also features a Stoke City crest on one of its walls<\/p>\n
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JAMES ELLIOT\/GB NEWS<\/p>\n
Mr Elliot said the action from the council was sparked by a complaint from just one local resident.<\/p>\n
“It just seems there are a few people locally that don’t want a pub there, and for some reason, someone has taken offence to the red,” he added.<\/p>\n
“The one thing that got me was the green on the old signs where it says Jolly Potters – that green isn’t in the conservation area list.”<\/p>\n
After leaving the army in 2013, Mr Elliot worked as a prison officer before deciding to get involved in the hospitality industry three years ago, becoming the leaseholder of another pub in Keele.<\/p>\n
![\"Inside](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/inside-the-jolly-potters-pub.jpg\")
Mr Elliot claims he spent \u00a315,000 renovating the pub<\/p>\n
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JAMES ELLIOT\/GB NEWS<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old said he feels “betrayed” by the action being taken against the Jolly Potters, adding that the council has shown “no interest” in him.<\/p>\n
“It’s sad to think of the number of places I have spoken to people and they say there is support for veterans – there isn’t,” he told the People’s Channel.<\/p>\n
“My Afghan medals are in a shoebox. It’s not something when they grow up I’ll be telling my kids.<\/p>\n
“My thing is now I’m trying to build an empire, but the local council have no interest in us.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/the-jolly-potters-beer-garden.jpg\")
The pub’s beer garden has also been painted red and white in nod to Stoke City Football Club<\/p>\n
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JAMES ELLIOT\/GB NEWS<\/p>\n
“What everyone does is we leave the area, we get on a train and we go to Liverpool or Birmingham – no wonder Stoke-on-Trent is like a ghost town, but then they are trying to kill us over a can of paint.”<\/p>\n
Mr Elliot has been forced to hire a decorator who will come on Monday morning and paint the pub’s windowsills and door frame in creams and greys.<\/p>\n
“It is going to look massively depressing,” the army veteran commented.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/the-jolly-potters-before-the-paint-work.jpg\")
Mr Elliot took over the pub around 15 weeks ago – pictured here in its original colours<\/p>\n
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JAMES ELLIOT\/GB NEWS<\/p>\n
“I have got some green banners that advertise \u2018live sports here, serving drinks\u2019 and I’ve even got to take those down.\u201d<\/p>\n
GB News has contacted Stoke-on-Trent City Council for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An army veteran turned pub operator has been ordered to repaint his boozer after the council ruled its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[35884,84,59,67681,50,56,54,55,3921],"class_list":{"0":"post-147022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-across-the-uk","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-neighbour-rows","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-west-midlands"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}