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| Bright, fresh and 'outlawed' - Steve Beasant's controversial wild flowers |
A STORM has blown up over a councillor's use of wildflowers, such as poppies and corn cockles, as a backdrop during internet screening of council meetings.
Cllr Steve Beasant, Lib-Dem representative for Grimsby's East Marsh ward, has been reprimanded over his choice, for instance, at the September meeting of the planning committee.
The poppies have been flowering in Grant Thorold park which is within Cllr Beasant's ward.
But the council hierarchy has told him them they are insufficiently formal.
In future, he has been told to opt for a 'neutral' backdrop or one more representative of the borough - say Grimsby dock tower or Cleethorpes pier.
But is Cllr Beasant being picked on because he is not part of the council's controlling group?
At the same meeting, the backdrop for the deputy mayor, Cllr David Hasthorpe, was decidedly Shakespearean in theme.
At a previous cabinet meeting, NELC's deputy leader, Cllr John Fenty, chose a scene with the unmistakable flavour of exotic holidays.
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| To be or not to be? David Hasthorpe goes Elizabethan |
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| Caribbean? Mediterranean? Only John Fenty knows |
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| The sun sets on Grimsby - Callum Procter (that's him on the right) and the dock tower |
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| Come to Cleethorpes! Stephen Harness and the pier |
The Grimsby News says: For the most part, Grimsby is a seriously nature-depleted urban environment where few birds sing and few wild flowers bloom. Yet when a fresh-thinking and imaginative councillor seeks to show this is not the whole story, what does NELC's hierarchy do? It seeks to censor him. Cllr Beasant should continue displaying the poppies and corn flowers. Would that other councillors might be equally inspired by nature and the splendid example their colleague has shown.
Sodding Snowflakes! Why don't they just melt away and get on with the jobs they're paid to do?
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