Plants on the way to restore floral clock

NEW plants have been ordered and are on the way to Westonsuper-Mare to bring life back to the floral clock.

The flower bed of the town centre feature was concreted over by the volunteers who had been looking after it in February, as they said they were unable to get the volunteers to water the flowers and were planning to replace it with a mural.

But North Somerset Council, which said it did not know about the concrete in advance, intervened, taking a sledgehammer to the concrete and insisting the flowers would be restored.

Now a leading councillor has said that plants, specifically chosen to require less watering, have been ordered and the clock should be fully planted again by mid-May.

Mike Solomon, the council‘s executive member for culture and leisure, said: “We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to plan the future of Westonsuper-Mare‘s floral clock, and I’m delighted to say that we’re expecting to get trowels in the ground very soon.

“We’ve created a new planting scheme that uses sustainable planting, featuring ornamental shrubs and bee-friendly species. As well as providing colour and looking beautiful, these plants don’t require as much watering and maintenance as flowers, helping us protect the environment and look after the space in a cost-effective way.

“So we can keep the design looking fresh. There will also be a small area in the clock that can be planted with annual flowers, which we can change each year.”

He added: “Volunteers have been a hugely important part of the clock’s history and they’re vital to the clock’s future as well. We’ve created a dedicated area for volunteers in our design, where they can plant what they’d like – such as vegetables or herbs – and nurture these spaces.

“I’d also like to thank those who have offered to sponsor this project. We’ve seen how important this space is to our local community and it’s incredible to see people getting involved.”

North Somerset Council owns the floral clock but it has been looked after by volunteers from Weston Lions Club for the last ten years. Commenting on the concreting of the clock in February, Mr Solomon said: “There was a breakdown in communications but I am not going to be playing the blame game.”

The Lions Club said that looking after the clock had been “costing £15,000 a year at the height of its glory” and keeping up the watering had been a key challenge.