Oswaldtwistle Hanging baskets
 

What an absolute disgrace and waste of money, As I walked the length of Union road today I noticed all the hanging baskets which Peter Britcliffe thought would brighten up our town and which we all paid for out of our taxes, are nearly all dead. Instead of being at there full bloom at this time of year they are all shrivelled up and brown and there are dozens of them. This council is turning our town into a laughing stock. YOU HAVE TO WATER THEM AS WELL PETER. I wonder how much they cost to put up, one or two people have watered there own, good on them, but they shouldn't need to. Peter have a look at Blackburns Baskets - they water theirs.

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On teh other hand, I noticed some green leaves on the new trees on broadway, perhaps they aren't all dead after all

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It is a waste of money.

Probably seemed a good idea just before the election.;)

I already started a thread about what I thought of these dead blooms.

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...hlight=bloomin

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Gary if you had taken me up on my offer of a lift to the Area Council meeting you would have heard that the dead ones are the winter ones and the summer ones are due to go up soon. You would also have learnt what the new summer ones cost. It looks a little late to me for summer ones going up ( says me with a dead winter one still hanging next to the front door :( )

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How do you know I wasn't there?;)

I said in my original thread I know they were 'winter hanging baskets'.

My own has been out since the first of May, and looks fantastic, thanks to watering twice a day and a weekly feed.

Good luck to the Ossy ones, which will suffer even more than the winter ones from lack of water. Even if it rains they need water every day.

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Wasn't the idea that the bulbs for summer were planted under the winter ones so that when the winter ones died off the summer ones started pushing through so that new ones didn't have to go up? Didn't we get told that this would save money by only having to be hung once? So, am I right in understanding that the winter ones are being replaced with summer ones because the plan didn't work?

In all fairness to Britcliffe on this one, my understanding was also that the council would do this and place them outside shops that wanted one on the understanding that the shop keepers themselves would take some responsibility for caring for them.

So six of one and half dozen of the other on this one!

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Because from where I was sat I could see everyone. You were not there. :p

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They seek him here, they seek him there, that effin' Rindy's died his hair.;)



In answer top Gayle, the bulbs were meant to come up in the spring, after the winter flowering plants had died. They were never intended to last until the summer.

My Ma told Peter when offered a hanging basket that she didn't have the inclination to go out everyday, after carrying the steps outside, to water a basket that would have to be high enough to deter the vandals. Especially when she'd been rolling out teacakes since six am, when Peter was still tucked up under his duvet.

Other towns/cities have hanging baskets that are watered by council workers. Perhaps less baskets and someone to care for them would give us a better chance in the Britain in Bloom competition next year.:D

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I had a thought in the middle of the night!

The baskets could be planted up with things that would survive on rain water alone. Things like house leeks, sedums, alpines, even some ivies. There are lots of flowering sedums which would grow down a hanging basket beautifully all year round with no care needed.

Initially it would be slightly more expensive than using bedding plants, but they would care for themselves, green up Union Road, and look much better than rows of dead hanging baskets merrily swinging in the breeze.

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Blimey Rind you were being horticultural in your sleep LOL:D

I have a healthy supply of ivy, weird stick leaf thingys, thriving weeds etc that grow too bloody well without manual water intervention in my back garden if PB wants to take it all off my hands for free & it survives all year round all weathers etc , nobody needs to bother with them they do it themselves.:D

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Blooming heck 'horticultural'..............a big word for me this time of day :D

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I was being nice and trying to be supportive to our leader for once but you're right, what was I thinking - it was a numb idea and not surprisingly didn't work! The council should be maintaining them if they offer to put them there in the first place.

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I too suport the idea of making the whole borough greener and more attractive, not just Ossy. I think the initial idea was doomed to failure because of the frequent up keep needed. Looking at some of the sloping pavements in Ossy I wouldn't like to mount a pair of step ladders to water a basket.

The more I've thought about it succulent hanging baskets wouldn't be any more expensive than filling them with winter/summer bedding plants. If you wanted them to be seasonal you could under plant with minature flowering bulbs such as narcissi and irises.

Once they were in place they would need no maintainance at all, and also help conserve water because they get what they need from the atmosphere. I have a great display of house leeks just growing on a stone.

We could be greening the place up at the same time as being green.

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Latest update.

Just got back from having my haircut at my cousin's hairdressers. The summer hanging baskets have been erected today and do look very nice at the moment, although the ones outside her shop and Owen and Ewings are hung fifteen feet off the pavement. They were told another man is coming round next week if people want them moved lower, so that they can be watered. At the moment you'd have to have a pair of window cleaner's ladders to water them. It might have saved man hours if this task had just been done once and they had been put in the right place to begin with.

Interestingly whilst I was being shorn, a HBC truck came round and watered the ones that had been hung from the lamposts last week. So the council do water those.

Also because the shopkeepers have to store the winter flowering ones I managed to give one a closer inspection. Although it was stone dry the ivy was still green amongst the other dead plants, leading me to believe that they could be planted with species that require no maintenance at all.

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Pmsl:eek: whats one of those have you a pic???? the only house leeks we have are the ones leaking from the guttering to the doorstep:rolleyes:

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I nominate Garinda to be our green fingered expert :eek::D

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Since I don't have a digital camera, just my webcam, I'm not dragging a half ton stone to the door as I missed last month's meet because of a bad back. However below is a photo of some leeks I've grown in a tarracotta urn which has no soil in, which shows that it can be done.

I'm glad my leeks made you laugh, and hope the giggles didn't produce any leaks of your own.;)

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PMSL i did have leaks of my own for a moment lol

Awww nice set of leek in Urn's, i have never seen them before in my life till now -so how does it grow without soil & in the urn inself???? so you are really quite a gardener at heart:)

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They get their nutrients from air. I could grow them on your jugs if you want.;)

By the way I don't want to be known as Rindy Thrower, there is already a porn star of that name.:D

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Pmsl i would have some amazing foliage to cover the jugs least they'd be stared at for different reasons lol:D

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http://uk.geocities.com/funstuff30uk...62006_1958.JPG

http://uk.geocities.com/funstuff30uk...50606_2015.JPG

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Very interesting Mad. I agree about the shopkeepers caring for the basket more if they had erected one themselves.

(Love the name of the Mayor. Is her office called the ruby chambers?)

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No it's called the old morgue. north street atherstone. and yes up until recently our town council offices were the morgue. :D

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Dead.

Dead .

Dead.

A terrible waste.

Looks friggin' awful now.

Take 'em down.

The only ones still alive are those few on the lamposts which they water.

Bloody disgraceful planning and a waste of money.

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After a little research I've found from the budget papers of the area council meeting minutes that the cost of making and installing the hanging baskets was FIVE THOUSAND POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A disgraceful amount of money to waste when they have died within a few short weeks, because no one can even reach them to give them water.

The woman who owns the florist opposite the Town Hall is livid. She has two dead ones they placed seventeen feet from the floor, swinging dead in the breeze outside her shop.

I love flowers and the idea of greening up our area, but if you haven't got the sense to think about maintenance don't waste our bloody money.

Hang your head in shame Mr Britcliffe. Preferably seventeen feet off the floor so we can't water it!!!

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wouldnt it have been better to add an extra thousand to the budget and water them twice a week? They are proper municipal baskets with a reservoir aren't they? not wilkinsons 99p ones?

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No they are ones without a reservoir.

Basket, matting, bit of moss, compost and dead plants. Looks awful.

The few that are on lamposts are watered by someone from the council, but not those so high off the ground that even if they wanted to water them they couldn't reach.

The one outside Owen and Ewing's Insurance Brokers are under the guttering and aren't even near an upstairs window. How the hell they were supposed to be watered is a mystery.

Perhaps if they are stupid enough to do the same thing next year they will provide shopkeepers with some stilts.

Happily my own floral display looks stunning.:)

Watered twice a day, dead headed daily, and feed once a week, in time to be at it's peak to greet my guest Milly, soon to be arrivied from Milan.

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here you go peter, invest in some nice hanging baskets. do half as many baskets, pay someone to water them twice a week, and you'll get praise for it instead of a good slagging off. if i can find my quote I'll list some prices.
How many baskets is there rindy?

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I don't know.:confused:

Have I got the time to count them when I could be on Accy Web slaggin' 'em off?:D

I'd guess 40-50.

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No comments from the Ossy F.O.P.'s (The friend's of Peter.)


Perhaps they've wilted in the heat along with the geraniums.;)

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See Here

Ok .. which one of you was it ?

Somebody must have come home with dead petals in their hair !!!
No matter what one's thoughts are, this is just another act of mindless vandalism, makes my blood boil.

Surely, someone must have seen them :mad:

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Makes you wonder how much effort they went to. I parked up in liverpool once with a pallet on the back that took four of us to put on. I was in the shop a few minutes, came out and it was gone.

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Guess it must be something to do with the adrenalin rush Madhatter, seems danger and excitement gives you an Incredible Hulk phenomena. Suppose this is what happens to thieves and yobs.

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As someone pointe out in the letters page of the Observer, the site that was vandalised is directly opposite Oswaldtwistle's one and only CCTV camera on Union Road.

Does it not work?

Does no one ever watch it?

Is there no evidence of them vandalising the baskets?

If not, what is the point???

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In the back of my mind somewhere I have a recollection that we were told at the area council meetings that the cameras were next to useless because they were so old. The Conservatives promised us a whole load of new ones in their election manifesto - obviously not been delivered yet!

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It's been quite quiet in this thread from the F.O.P.'s.


Do we take it as a no comment, or are they happy with the swinging dead heads in the baskets. most of which have mysteriously been removed?

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was reading a letter in last weeks observer and apperantly there is supposed to be a security camera close by to stop vandilism..is this true?and if so like the letter says why has this not been picked up on camera and is it actually working?

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was reading a letter in last weeks observer and apperantly there is supposed to be a security camera close by to stop vandilism..is this true?and if so like the letter says why has this not been picked up on camera and is it actually working?

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Sorry Garinda , simalar post missed this while rolling through thread..but questions the same?

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Think I answered it already as well - the camera is over 10 yrs old and is next to useless. We're supposed to be getting new ones but they obviously haven't been delivered yet.

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But there were photographs and blurb about the new CCTV cameras we are going to get, all over Peter Britcliffe's election pamphlet.

Are we sure they are not already here? Perhaps they are hidden in the dead geraniums.:p

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Sure it wasnt a dummy and the real camera was a web cam hidden in a stratigic point?

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You're quite right, Garinda there was, but I wouldn't be the one to suggest that they were just empty promises. ;)

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Ok I suggest that the blurb on the ellection pamphlet was an empty promise.
Do I have to get that seconded?

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Not me.:eek:

We must give him time to come up with his stated promises.:)

When is the next election by the way?:D

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I'll second it. He was talking out of his poop pipe. :D

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On a recent trip up from London, Pendy managed to capture the full beauty of my well watered hanging basket, which is still gloriously heavy with blooms, thanks to the watering it gets, unlike the ones the Council wasted money on hanging.


(Sadly the sight of me in my Speedos had to be censored.):D

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lol @ the bit of snipping there.


You should see the state of our hanging basket. It wasn't right brilliant before we went away bit it's certainly a rival for the council ones now!! :D

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Snipping?

Dog with a bone?

Wouldn't let it lie?

Me?

Never!:D

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Lol, think I should go and get my eyes tested!:p

Trust me that little bit of paper stuck on with blu-tac will stop people from bringing their tea up.:D

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.....go on, but shame about the face!:D

(Good to have you back x)

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Can't see your face! :p Night night:s_zzzz:

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I have the Roundup waiting Chav, when are you coming round to pick me up ;) :D

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This will be used in evidence against you, if my lovely hanging basket is seen at a car boot sale, raising funds for the Friends of the Rhydding's Park Bunnies!:eek:

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...plus you'd probably get more money from selling those fine Queen Anne style legs.;)

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I would never be so rude to say you have legs like a queen ;)