The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A plea has gone out to try and get Spalding back into the In Bloom competition.
The town has won East Midlands in Bloom 11 times in the past, Spalding Town Forum was told last week.
But a lack of volunteers means it doesn’t even enter it anymore.
Long time members George Slinger and Geoff Hoare told the forum that shoots had been forming in looking to grow it back.
They said forum chairman Coun Rob Gibson wanted to resurrect Spalding In Bloom working with former councillor Pete Williams who has erected 121 baskets in town with Birchgrove putting five on the bridge.
Mr Slinger told the forum: “Spalding In Bloom is live, but it doesn’t actually enter the competition at the moment.
“We need more enthusiastic people to get involved and then it will be good again.
“The 126 baskets that have gone up will look good. It’s probably not enough, but it’s all we can afford
“We charge £30 a basket to be watered.”
Coun Gibson said he wanted to take on the mantle of running it from the late Angela Newton and former councillor Christine Lawton and had allocated some of his ward budget to ‘get through this year’.
The meeting was also told former district council leader Gary Porter had made a one-off donation but there were concerns over future funding including no more from the council’s Town Improvement Fund.
“Watering the hanging baskets is not cheap,” Coun Gibson said. “We can get them planted for £25 but it’s a lot of water and maintenance for a year.
“About £11,000 can cover this year but we need to think about next year.
“I’m passionate about it as if our town centre is good it brings people in and they spend money in our shops.
“They already look good and I want to do it to enhance our town centre and hopefully people keep spending money.
“If anyone wants to come on and take it on, please do get in touch.”
Coun Gary Taylor added: “The flower parade has returned so let’s keep up.
“Spalding has won in the past and can do again in the future.
“We know there are volunteers out there from events like the parade and Spalding Festival and many are keen gardeners.
“There are pots of money that have been allocated for four years so that’s one way of raising money and we can look at sponsorship.
“A handful of people have done this in the past but we need to enlarge that and we need more volunteers to make this modern and dress-appropriate for the future.”
Anybody interested in volunteering can email Coun Gibson on robert.gibson@sholland.gov.uk
