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Wildflowers planted for £75 as council quotes £2k

Gareth Lightfoot
Local Democracy Reporting Service
Stockton Conservatives From left, Stockton councillors Niall Innes, Lynn Hall and Jason French on land at the junction of Birkdale Road and Darlington Road, Hartburn, Stockton, where they have planted wildflowers. They are standing on grass with a small patch of wildflowers behind them and trees. It is a sunny day.Stockton Conservatives
Councillors Niall Innes, Lynn Hall and Jason French, decided to plant the wildflowers themselves

Councillors spent £75 of their own money to plant wildflowers in a village after being quoted more than £2,000 by a council.

The three Conservatives said they took matters into their own hands when they were quoted £2,300 by Stockton Council to plant wildflowers on land at the junction of Birkdale Road and Darlington Road, Hartburn.

Lynn Hall, Niall Innes and Jason French said they wanted to "deliver a colourful and environmentally friendly project themselves, without the sky-high costs proposed".

The Labour-run council's environment lead Nigel Cooke said it would cost much more for the council to complete the job "properly" and maintain the patch.

The councillors, along with Stockton West Conservative MP Matt Vickers, bought wildflower seeds and a seed spreader for £75 and prepared the ground and sowed the seeds themselves.

Hall said the four-figure sum "simply doesn't add up" while Mr Innes said it was "mind blowing that we've been able to achieve this for just £75".

French said this year's planting was a trial and, while admitting they are "not master gardeners", they hope to improve coverage next year as some areas "are a little sparse".

Stockton Conservatives A close-up shot of purple wildflowers in a field on a sunny day.Stockton Conservatives
The council said their quote involved more than buying seeds and a spreader

Care For Your Area had provided annual wildflower planting since 2017, but costs rose over the years to the latest figure of £2.38 per square metre, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Responding, Cooke said he was "not going to criticise councillors for doing work in their own time" but was "a little bit taken aback" by the criticisms of the authority.

He said: "There's a lot of work in planting wildflower seeds. They have to prepare the area.

"Each area the council does needs two separate treatments of herbicide. Then the team have to return to rotavate the area and return again to spread the seeds.

"Then they'd come back at agreed intervals to pull weeds up.

"Clearly that's a lot more work than just buying a seed spreader and spreading a few seeds on the ground. So it costs money."

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