Community pulls together against 'ridiculous' hanging basket red tape

Residents who feared their town's awarding-winning floral displays would be axed after being told to pay £300 to put up hanging baskets have been saved by well-wishers. Members of Chatteris in Bloom spoke out against new council rules that said they would have to complete a safety course or hire a contractor to put displays up.

Fears over electrocution on lampposts meant the group were not able to put their own baskets up. The volunteer-run group has won gold at Britain in Bloom and Anglia in Bloom.

The head of Chatteris in Bloom said an outpouring of support means they will be able to hang their displays. Sue Unwin, 64, said businesses had offered to pay the safety course costs and another volunteer group – which already has the training – has offered its services.

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Mrs Unwin said: "Our community is well and truly behind us – we've had businesses offering to pay for the course for us to put the hanging baskets up. Even further afield in neighbouring towns, we've had people offer to pay for any time someone may need to take off from work.

"They said they appreciate the work that is done by volunteers – we give thousands of our hours to make people proud of our town. The Chatteris Christmas Light's committee were hit by the same rules and have one member of their volunteer group who is able to put the hanging baskets up. That person has kindly offered to help us out so our baskets will go up this month."

Mrs Unwin said people had felt "angry and disillusioned" at the Cambridgeshire County Council's new rules over the health and safety of "live" lampposts. She said: "It's just ridiculous. None of us are going to pay that much money to do a safety course for something we’ve been doing for the last 20 years.

"We work as little gnomes with wheelbarrows putting two hanging baskets either side on the lamppost and a farmer would put them halfway up, really early in the morning so we didn't disturb anyone. I think the council is trying to kill community spirit."

She added that the group had received an overwhelming amount of support over the last few days but there was more to it than just the council's obstruction. She said: "There is a bigger picture to this – no one wants to be bogged down with paperwork when all we want to do is plant flowers.

"The sheer amount of support we've got from businesses, individuals and people out there are facing similar issues in their towns and cities. Sometimes as volunteers, it can feel like you're underappreciated but the whole thing has been humbling and surreal."

Chatteris in Bloom have won six gold awards for their floral displays in the town and in 2023, took every accolade as part of Anglian Bloom. The group, run by volunteers who often have full-time jobs alongside their committee roles, put up 40 baskets each year with two on each lamppost in May.

Mrs Unwin said the council had told her that lampposts might be live and health and safety checks were needed. She said: "We've come up against red tape all the time and it’s getting harder and harder to do things."

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said: "We are always keen to work closely with local communities across Cambridgeshire to make use of streetlights with festive displays. All we are asking is that any group wishing to create displays on our streetlights – which could involve putting heavy items overhead, on streetlights directly connected to the local power grid – is that they contact us first.

"This is so we can make sure essential independent safety training is completed for everyone's wellbeing. This is not red tape, it’s about keeping people safe. We have met with Chatteris Town Council and we understand they are looking into volunteer training. We gather there is already at least one trained volunteer in the area."