War memorials grassed over as councils seek to save cash

COUNCILS are turfing over flower beds in war memorials and remembrance gardens in an effort to cut costs.

Local authorities have pulled funding from landscaping budgets along with a raft of other services as dozens of councils across Britain face making cuts to stave off financial collapse.

Labour-led East Lothian council has torn out flower beds surrounding a First World War memorial in the centre of Cockenzie, near Edinburgh, due to financial constraints at an “extremely challenging time”.

Residents woke up to discover the flower garden had been removed and replaced with grass turf in December.

Lachlan Bruce, a Conservative councillor for the area, said: “Like all authorities in Scotland we face serious challenges because of the SNP government’s continual underfunding of local government and East Lothian in particular.

“But, fundamentally in the face of SNP funding cuts, we need to prioritise the delivery of frontline services which regrettably means decorative planting cannot be as extensive,” he added.

Rother district council also announced last summer that flower beds at Bexhill Cemetery, in Bexhill, East Sussex, would be grassed over as part of a cost-cutting drive. This was despite a local petition against the move that had garnered more than 800 signatures.

Residents of Royal Sutton Coldfield, in northeast Birmingham, also fear that public gardens will be devoid of flowers this summer after Labour-run Birmingham city council issued a Section 114 notice in September, effectively declaring bankruptcy.

In February, a row erupted after the town was informed that the city’s budget would not include funding for planters on streets and flower beds surrounding two war memorials. The decision came at “very short notice” according to local councillors.

Birmingham city council owes almost £3billion to lenders and has recently cut its budget for street lighting, anti-graffiti, cultural heritage and landscaping in public green spaces.

A spokesman for East Lothian Council said: “As we have three gardeners with around 160 beds to maintain in the area they are responsible for, we have been looking at new options for how to best deploy limited resources at an extremely challenging time.

“There are a number of pressures on services which we are doing our best to manage.”