Last updated at 14:56, Wednesday, 14 July 2010

A DALTON councillor has criticised the state of some of the town’s planters.

Deputy mayor of Dalton, Councillor Ann Thurlow, has called for the removal of the Barrow Borough Council-owned planters throughout the town.

Cllr Thurlow said she mistook the flowers in the eight planters for weeds when she first saw them.

She said: “Not only are the planters in a poor state, they’re all rusty and horrible, the plants look like we just get the left-overs.

“And it’s been like that since I’ve been in Dalton.

“We actually pay more rates than those living in Barrow, but we seem to get a rough deal on everything and this is just one more example of it.

“When I first saw them I thought ‘oh, I thought they had emptied those and they’ve got weeds in now.’

“Last year, the Cumbria in Bloom judges said the planters were so poor that we would be better having them removed entirely, and I don’t know why that has not been done.

“We are going to get rid of them now, if we possibly can. It is beyond a joke, I’d rather just have the empty space.”

Councillor Martin McLeavy, the mayor of Dalton, has also recently organised the installation of a new planter in the form of an iron ore wagon, on Market Street, with the plants donated by Steve Fisher of Tythe Barn Nurseries.

He is currently seeking approval to install eight similar planters in the town.

Alan Barker, street care manager for Barrow Borough Council, said: “The planting that takes place with them is what is in the contract. It is so many plants per square metre, and that meets the contract.

“The planters are tired and we’ve asked for them to be renovated, they need repainting amongst other things. It is just dependent on when the money is available to get it done.”

First published at 13:04, Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk