Council using fake flowers to avoid watering them

A council says it is using fake flowers to avoid having to water them during the drought.

North East Lincolnshire Council has placed plastic floral displays in planters on the A180 flyover in Grimsby, citing both budget and water shortages as the reason.

Residents are divided on the decision, with some saying they were "bad for the environment", while others said they were "long lasting and very economical".

Councillor Bob Callison, portfolio holder for environment and energy security, said it was a temporary measure driven in part by the "ongoing drought and hosepipe ban".

He said: "We took the decision not to use real flowers as we did not want to add to water shortages.

"The cost of real displays and watering was extremely expensive, and we wanted a quick way of brightening up this dull area of concrete for drivers who were passing by and just seeing dried up dead displays in our planters."

Neil Kenyon, 60, who is a plant buyer at Pennells Garden Centre in nearby Cleethorpes, has worked in horticulture for 35 years and said silver foliage, thyme and lavender could be "drought resistant" options for the council in the future.

He said he did not think drivers would "know if they were real or artificial", but said his preference would be for real plants.

Kenyon added: "Real plants work best for nature, because the bees pollinate the plants and they're good for the crops in the field."

When asked about the popularity of artificial flowers, he said there was still a "big demand" for real plants.

In Grimsby town centre, residents had a range of views on the displays.

Lydia Smith disagreed with the use of artificial flowers, citing environmental concerns.

She said: "The production of the plastic flowers is bad for the environment.

"There must be a middle ground they can come up with to keep the area looking nice while maintaining the natural atmosphere of the area.

"Everything that's happening now is to do with global warming, so putting plastic flowers in isn't really solving the problem overall."

Marc Lawless also had his concerns about the installation, describing it as "ridiculous".

He said: "There are flowers that would thrive there. They're already wilting, aren't they? And not only that, it will get filthy with all that pollution that goes across there.

"Plastic is not going to do a lot for the area, is it?"

However, Paul Fontaine did not see an issue with the use of artificial plants.

He said: "I think it's long lasting and very economical. It's not penny pinching, it's good planning."

He believes artificial flowers are "easy to maintain and look pretty", and said the disruption caused by maintaining real plants would mean "more chaos" on the town's roads.

He added: "As long as they look pretty, plastic is ok."

Callison said he was keen to work with companies and organisations to see what else could be done to improve the appearance of roads and communities in the borough.

He added: "Brightening up the flyover is clearly just a very small thing and [has] been done with a very small budget as a stop gap. But what it does show is that we can come up with ways of doing things if we work together.

"Over the next few weeks, I am going to be contacting councillors and others to start looking at how we can all unite to smarten areas up, to look at things like alley clearance again and to make us all proud of where we live and what we do."

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