Bright and welcoming - or cheap and tacky? Plastic flowers are now adorning Grimsby's A180 flyover

                                            

Cllr Callison - making us proud?

PLASTIC flowers imported from the Far East have been installed in the planters on the A180 flyover in Grimsby.

NELC leader Cllr Oliver Freeston and his Cleethorpes cabinet colleague Cllr Bob Callison have this week been carrying out the work which may provide the springboard for similar initiatives elsewhere in the borough.

Says the latter: "We really wanted to do something that added a splash of colour to welcome drivers as they were coming into Grimsby and Cleethorpes - and these have done the trick.

"Of course, real displays would have been fantastic, but there was no way we wanted to add to water shortages.

"The cost of keeping more displays alive was simply not an option."

He continues: "Brightening up the flyover is just a very small thing and been done with a very small budget. 

"But what it does show is that we can come up with ways of doing things if we work together.

"Over the next few weeks, I am going to be contacting fellow councillors, and others, to start looking at how we can all unite to smarten areas up, to look at things like alley clearance again - and to make us all proud of where we live and what we do."

The Grimsby News says: The two councillors are to be commended for their initiative - but not for their taste. The artificial plants may look colourful now but they will soon enough be darkened by exhaust fumes. Going for the plastic option also sets a disturbing precedent. Is that what we will soon be getting in Pier Gardens and parks in the borough? Those who cherish real flowers, trees and shrubs will hold their heads in their hands and weep - probably enough tears to fill a whole row of watering cans.