Monday 9 February 2004 - News - Health and safety
'Dangerous' hanging baskets banned
Flower enthusiasts are
up in arms after hanging baskets were banned from a historic market
town.
The baskets have featured in the summer floral display at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, for almost two decades. But they will be absent this year after council chiefs decided they pose too great a risk to public safety.
Michael Ames, chair of Bury in Bloom, said the ban was pointless. He told reporters: "They are guarding their own backs, health and safety. We do live in an age of litigation, do we not? No one has been hurt, certainly not in Bury St Edmunds, certainly not in Suffolk."
Mr Ames said his group had bowed to Suffolk County Council's demands to make the baskets smaller last year. But after this year's stock were weighed, filled with soil and water, council chiefs decided they had to go, he said. Even a manufacturer's guarantee that the local lampposts can take the strain was not enough to save them.
"This will have a knock-on effect for our floral campaign during the summer months," Mr Ames said. "We will have to look at something different. There are hanging basket trees which are manufactured, believe it or not, which we would have to get permission to put around the town."
Max Herd
The baskets have featured in the summer floral display at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, for almost two decades. But they will be absent this year after council chiefs decided they pose too great a risk to public safety.
Michael Ames, chair of Bury in Bloom, said the ban was pointless. He told reporters: "They are guarding their own backs, health and safety. We do live in an age of litigation, do we not? No one has been hurt, certainly not in Bury St Edmunds, certainly not in Suffolk."
Mr Ames said his group had bowed to Suffolk County Council's demands to make the baskets smaller last year. But after this year's stock were weighed, filled with soil and water, council chiefs decided they had to go, he said. Even a manufacturer's guarantee that the local lampposts can take the strain was not enough to save them.
"This will have a knock-on effect for our floral campaign during the summer months," Mr Ames said. "We will have to look at something different. There are hanging basket trees which are manufactured, believe it or not, which we would have to get permission to put around the town."
Max Herd