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London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon with Cllr Terry Stacy |
Blooming madness! Flower baskets removed
HANGING baskets in Islington streets are being taken down because they may fall on passers-by.
The order to remove 13 baskets in Upper Street and Holloway Road has come from Transport for London (TfL) officials who fear they may put too much of a strain on lampposts.
Islington Council was ordered to test every lamppost and basket – brimming with geraniums and petunias – checking the age and thickness of the steel to see if they could take the strain.
“This is health and safety gone mad,” said Lib Dem council leader Councillor Terry Stacey. “Flower baskets have never hurt anyone but the City Hall clipboard brigade have ordered them down. It makes no sense. We’ve only been told to take some down while others in the same street are fine.
“It’s ironic that ‘Britain in Bloom’ inspectors are coming to Islington this week. Now they will see fewer baskets, all thanks to one of the competition’s backers – TfL. You couldn’t make it up.”
Susan Lees, a member of Islington Gerdeners, said: “It’s just mean of TfL to do this just as the judging is about to begin. Holloway Road is horrible and those flowers cheered the whole place up.”
The Lib Dems have put up a record number of flower baskets this year, more than 1,000 across the borough, 556 of which are on lampposts.
A TfL spokesman said: “TfL has a duty of care to the public and all lamp columns must be structurally tested before things like hanging baskets are hung from them. Islington Council placed hanging baskets on 211 lamp columns managed by TfL, including on Upper Street, without the appropriate testing.” |
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