Council leaders in Salisbury have hit back at “politically motivated” attacks on their decision to replace single-use hanging basket displays and planters provided by the council with environmentally friendly sustainable planting in the medieval city centre. As part of an effort to become carbon neutral by 2030 and encourage bees and butterflies into the city centre, the coalition-led council this week voted to pilot replacing hanging baskets with “living pillars” and “parklets”, which it hopes will provide pockets of nature in the heart of the city. The leader of the Conservative opposition, Eleanor Wills, called it “ideological nonsense as per from [a] leftwing cabal” and said it was “‘incredibly unfortunate for a city with medieval roots”. She said: “For a leftwing city council to outright ban hanging baskets and other floral displays for reasons of sustainability and biodiversity suggests […] a new and undesirable avenue for ideological silliness.” But the independent councillor Annie Riddle, one of the leadership group, said the move had been blown out of proportion as part of a “political stunt” by Wills and that there was no ban in place on hanging baskets, after some local business owners expressed concern that their own flowers would be outlawed. “You can’t really scrap hanging baskets, that’s a ridiculous exaggeration. Plenty of the shops and pubs have hanging baskets, and they can continue to do that – nobody’s banning them,” she said. “What we’re doing is trialling a different form of environmentally friendly council planting. To be honest with you, this is a politically motivated row that has been manufactured.” Riddle said the council had already stated that if the new displays were hated, there was “nothing to stop” the council reinstating baskets next year. “Salisbury’s history is one of its principal glories, but it can’t live in the past,” she said. “There are other ways that things can look nice, be more friendly to wildlife and provide more shade. We hope that that style of planting will attract more wildlife and be more bee-friendly.” In a review in 2019, the council committed to making the city as carbon neutral as possible by 2030 to help tackle the climate change emergency. New plans detailed in a five-page report include the construction of a “parklet” in Market Square, with a wheelchair-accessible seated area surrounded by plants, which the council says would provide natural shade and require less intensive watering. Proposals also include replacing traditional hanging baskets with “living pillars”, vertical plant installations that the council argues would “offer more benefits to wildlife and require less watering”.
Marc Read, the council’s environmental services manager, said that while colourful displays were “an expression of civic pride”, they were “increasingly demanding in terms of costs and other resources as the summer becomes increasingly dryer and hotter, as the climate continues to change”. The budget for the 2023-24 floral displays, including watering, is £30,000. The row has also centred on a plant structure known as “Gilbert” – a floral display in the shape of a dragon that has been a longstanding feature of Salisbury centre, and which the council says requires 30,000 litres of water a year. The council report states that “Gilbert’s frame has reached the end of its lifespan, with much of the internal watering pipework now failing”. Riddle said a local group, Men’s Shed, had offered to try to repair the structure, while the council was exploring ways to replant or recreate Gilbert but with more environmentally friendly plants. “What’s been lost sight of in all this is the reality of climate change and the fact that we’re going to have to adapt,” she said. “All that the city council is trying to do is what the electorate indicated when we were voted in two years ago, which is to make our city more environmentally friendly and keep it as green and pleasant as it is now for future generations.” The Met Office said this week that last month was the UK’s hottest June on record.