A PROUD former Gurkha with 28 years' service for the British Army has won his latest battle - to fly his regiment's flag.

Asbahadui Gurung, a retired captain with the Queen Gurkha Signals, was told earlier this year by planners at Purbeck District Council that he could not fly the regimental standard alongside the Union Flag outside his Gurkha restaurant in Wareham Road, Sandford.

Planners said it was not permitted under advertising regulations and did not fit into the categories of flags that did not need planning permission.

The only permitted flags are any country's national flag, the Commonwealth flag, that of the EU or UN, a county flag and the flag of any saint.

But the council has now helped Mr Gurung, originally from Nepal but a resident of the UK for 17 years, get around the regulations and on Sunday he was finally able to raise the standard at the restaurant in a ceremony that also marked its second anniversary.

He said: "I'm very happy. I'd like to say thank you very much to everyone who has helped us.

"It's the regimental flag so I'm proud to show it. Gurkhas have helped this country for many years. Finally the flag is up."

In February, councillors agreed with planners that the 1.5 metre flag and 4.5m flag poles that Mr Gurung was proposing would "constitute unnecessary additional clutter", but now officers have proffered a simple solution.

A council spokesman said: "We have explained to the owners that if they erect one vertical flag pole on their building holding the Gurkha flag, this does not need permission."

Mr Gurung used to run a restaurant at Blandford Camp, where a regiment of Gurkhas is stationed, and still counts Gurkha soldiers among his regular customers.

For almost 200 years Gurkhas, recruited from Nepal, have fought alongside British soldiers, winning a reputation for bravery and ferocity.

Their motto is "Better to die than be a coward" and they still carry into battle their traditional weapon - an 18-inch curved knife known as the kukri.