English Heritage has removed red plastic which transformed the Westbury White Horse into an England flag.

The plastic was thought to have been put in place by an England fan in the run-up to the England team’s highly anticipated semi-final match against Croatia on Wednesday.

But the local council on behalf of English Heritage has now removed the red cross from the hill figure - on the slope of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire - after it received complaints.

The charity said they took it down to ensure the 175ft (53m) tall landmark – which has been adopted as a symbol for the town of Westbury and even Wiltshire as a whole – was not damaged.

But the move has sparked fury among fans as excitement over England’s chance to win the World Cup reaches fever pitch.

It is the first year England have won a place in the semi-finals since 1990 and fans are beginning to believe this could finally be the year football comes home.

England's route to the World Cup semi-finals Show all 6 1 /6 England's route to the World Cup semi-finals England's route to the World Cup semi-finals England's route to the World Cup semi-finals Here we take a look at the route that has taken Gareth Southgate's side to the last four. Getty Images England's route to the World Cup semi-finals Tunisia 1 England 2 - Group G, Volgograd, June 18 A Harry Kane double got England off to a winning start, although they needed an injury-time winner from the Tottenham front man. A strong start from England was rewarded by Kane's close-range finish from a corner after only 11 minutes, but Kyle Walker's handball gifted Ferjani Sassi the chance to equalise from the spot before half-time. England probed without success for the second 45 minutes until, a minute into added-time, Kane's far post header following another corner sealed victory. Getty Images England's route to the World Cup semi-finals England 6 Panama 1 - Group G, Nizhny Novgorod, June 24 Southgate's side turned on the style against the ill-disciplined minnows, who were 5-0 down by half-time. Panama could not live with England's strength at set-pieces, which led to John Stones heading the opener and Kane adding number two with a penalty. Jesse Lingard curled in the best of the bunch for number three before another Stones header and another Kane penalty put England in dreamland. Kane completed his hat-trick with a deflection he knew nothing about before Felipe Baloy's late consolation. Getty Images England's route to the World Cup semi-finals England 0 Belgium 1 - Group G, Kaliningrad, June 28 Both sides fielded second-string sides, having already qualified for the knockout stages and in the knowledge that finishing second in the group was likely to offer a more favourable route to the final. Adnan Januzaj's brilliant solo goal won the match for Belgium. Getty Images England's route to the World Cup semi-finals Colombia 1 England 1 (England won 4-3 on penalties) - Last 16, Moscow, July 3 England won a World Cup penalty shootout for the first time as Jordan Pickford's save from Carlos Bacca and Eric Dier's cool spot-kick sealed a dramatic victory. Colombia, without star man James Rodriguez through injury, adopted rough-house tactics but Southgate's side kept their cool and went ahead through a second-half Kane penalty. They then recovered from conceding a last-gasp equaliser to Yerry Mina, and from Jordan Henderson missing first in the shootout, to win their first knockout game at a major tournament in 12 years. FIFA via Getty Images England's route to the World Cup semi-finals Sweden 0 England 2 - Quarter-finals, Samara, July 7 Southgate's side turned in their best performance of the tournament to see off a team who had kept three clean sheets in four games and contributed to Germany's early elimination. Harry Maguire's thumping first-half header got England up and running, with Dele Alli nodding home the second, but Pickford was again the star of the show with a couple of quite brilliant saves. Getty

Members of the public hit out at the move on a community Facebook page.

"They are doing no damage and think of the money coming to Westbury with people coming to see it. Killjoys. It is only concrete. Took you months to finally clean it,” Maurice John Bizeray wrote.

Samantha Mitchell added: “It’s coming home. But sadly not in Westbury, it would seem, because the council doesn’t have a sense of humour. What harm was it doing?”

People argued it was little more than “harmless fun” and branded those who took it down “killjoys”. Others chimed to offer to put the red cross back up.

“This was harmless fun and didn't harm anything the way it was done. Some people are killjoys and miserable people,” said another.

The red cross – which appeared to consist of two large red ribbons pinned to the horse to make the England flag - was taken down by Westbury Town Council on behalf of English Heritage.

English Heritage said it fully supports the England football team and wished them the best of luck on Wednesday in a statement.

"It's great to see people coming up with ingenious ways to show their support, but we do need to make sure that the Westbury White Horse is not damaged in the process," it said.

If England manage to beat Croatia in Moscow on Wednesday night, they will face France in the final on Sunday night. This would be the first time England has made it to a final since their only World Cup triumph, over half a century ago, in 1966.

Westbury's horse – which is said to be the oldest in all of Wiltshire – was restored in 1778 but many think it is considerably older than that.