Council grasscutters mow down flower display

Jun 1 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A COUNCIL blunder has ruined work by civic officials.

A spectacular display of daffodils in Meltham may never be the same again, after the stalks were mowed down by Kirklees Council grass-cutters.

Keen gardener Clive Mather was appalled when he saw the grass verge on Thick Hollins Road had been completely cut back.

The road – which leads to the A635 Greenfield Road to Holmfirth – was planted with thousands of daffodil bulbs by Meltham and District Civic Society several years ago.

Gardener Clive Mather, of Flushdyke, said: “When the flowers have finished, you are meant to leave them to die back until at least mid-June.

“Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to plant those bulbs.

“Now the whole lot has been mowed and the result is that they will be very poor next year. It is not good horticultural practice.

“I just think it is another example of council stupidity. It is just vandalism and pure ignorance.”

He said the bulbs helped give the long road a beautiful splash of colour each spring.

But he feared they would now be ruined.

He added: “It has been lovely in spring because it is a long road. They start flowering at the bottom and go right to the top. It is lovely to see and every year they have got better.

“Then some idiot does this and has undone all the work that has been done.

“At the moment we are also in the midst of breeding season for voles, stoats and birds who all use those verges.