Whilst many locals have been bemoaning the increase in potholes across the BCP conurbation, a group of local councillors involved in the organisation of this years BCP in Bloom competition have come up with a brainwave designed to put a smile on the faces of local residents.
Local Green Councillors spearheaded the move to show that not all potholes are bad and that with a ‘different mindset’ our roads could actually be places of natural beauty not to mention a haven for the dwindling bee populations.
A spokesman for the council said: “we’re initially just exploring the idea. We’ve had lots of complaints about the amount of potholes on BCP’s roads, we decided to ‘think outside the box’ and ‘inside the pothole!’ Which led us to think about things differently.
”We don’t have enough budget to repair the potholes so instead of leaving them open and empty and frankly quite ugly, we thought about encouraging local residents to fill them with flowers and foliage to make them more attractive – with added benefit of making them more obvious to other road users”.
local horticulturist Ivor Rose, manager of a well known local garden centre said: “we’re initially thinking it’s a great idea and could even open up the possibility of sponsorship – I’m thinking something along the lines of “this pothole is sponsored by Stewart’s Garden Centre” with a beautiful display of seasonal flowers, it would certainly lift the spirits!”
No final decision has been made yet and reactions to the plans are mixed with one disgruntled resident commenting “if they are considering a hair-brained idea like this, then they should at least consider planting vegetables instead of flowers which would help hard- pressed local people during the cost of living crisis”.