Abergele hanging basket scheme to be rescued

Jun 25 2009 by David Simister, North Wales Weekly News

HANGING baskets could make a return to Abergele after the town’s council pledged to work around traders’ worries.

Members of Abergele Town Council decided at a meeting last Thursday that funds would be allocated to provide a safe means for watering the plants after the scheme was suspended earlier this year due to a lack of interest and fears over health and safety.

Forty new hanging baskets have also been brought in to help support the scheme, which councillors say they are confident will help revive interest in the project from businesses.

“We’ve spoken to 17 different businesses around the town so far and 15 of them have given us a positive response,” said town councillor Andrew Wood.

“I’m sure that once the baskets are out in the town again everyone is going to want one.

“There was a lot of negativity originally surrounding the health and safety aspects of watering them, but those original worries have now ebbed away and we’ve been having a very positive response lately.”

Hanging baskets have decorated shops in the town’s main streets for several years but the scheme had been suspended earlier this year after a lack of interest from traders, with many claiming they were unable to water them for health and safety reasons.

Members of the council have now agreed to allocate £25 to fund a device to allow business owners to water the baskets safely.

Jeanette Dew, secretary of the Abergele Traders Association, welcomed the move: “Hopefully, when the new watering system arrives we’ll be able to get all the traders back on board and make the town look really nice.

“It’s a positive step, but really we need more than 40 baskets to make an impact.”