Zero-tolerance warning as Shrewsbury cracks down on a blooming nuisance
The flower beds and planters in Shrewsbury are starting to provide some much-needed colour around town following the summer planting scheme.
And Shrewsbury Town Council, along with the local policing team, is warning there will be a zero-tolerance policy on vandals who are caught damaging them.
The mammoth task has seen staff plant more than 300,000 home-grown blooms.
Town clerk Helen Ball said: “We take a great pride in the magnificent floral traditions in Shrewsbury which helps to maintain our reputation as the Town of Flowers for everyone who comes to the town.
“It takes a great deal of dedication from our staff to ensure that the flowers look great throughout the summer for the benefit of the whole town. We hope that the pride shown by our staff to ensure that we see the colourful floral displays is matched by our residents, shops and businesses.
“We all enjoy seeing the flowers and appreciate the hard work that goes into maintaining the floral features, and while there are occasions when we encounter some problems from a minority of people, we are asking local people to adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards any vandalism of the floral displays within the town centre."
Mindless
She is urging people to report anything untoward to the town council or local policing team.
Inspector Saf Ali, from Central Shropshire Safer Neighbourhood Team, added: “No-one wants to see incidents of mindless theft and damage to the floral displays in the town, and I share the frustrations of my Team Shrewsbury partners who often have to react to these incidents.
"The town has comprehensive CCTV coverage, which is often used to identify offenders, and I cannot emphasise enough that anyone caught committing criminal offences, or acts of anti-social behaviour, will be held to account and potentially prosecuted should that be necessary.
“We are fortunate to have so many people working together in Shrewsbury to help develop the town centre as a place where people want to live, work and visit and wanton acts of vandalism which blight the town centre will not be tolerated.”
To report any incidents of damage to floral planters, contact the town council on 01743 281010 or West Mercia Police on 101.
Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or at crimestoppers-uk.org
