Residents in Weymouth under fire from Dorset Council for their plant pot displays
Dorset Council Highways say they need insurance
Last updated 27th May 2021
Floral plant pot displays in a Weymouth street that bring joy to local residents have come under fire from Dorset Council.
Residents in Wesley Street have been putting pots outside their homes for a number of years to brighten up the area.
Wesley Street rarely sees traffic as it's a restricted access road, so households have decorated the street with plant pots.
Dorset Council has now told them they are obstructing the highway and are blocking the route for emergency vehicles.
Debz Medlicott is one of the residents.
She told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset:
"We have been displaying our flowers for a number of years now without any complaints or problems, that is up until now.
"Apparently the council have received 5 complaints within the past 8 weeks stating difficulty for workmen and maintenance people gaining access to our street to carry out work due to our flower displays."
"We all received letters stating that if we didn't move our displays to the required line the council would use an enforcement team to remove our displays. They also stated that we needed to apply for a planting out licence, which none of us had ever heard of."
As requested the residents moved their pots to within the boundaries stated by the council.
They also say the council offered them a free planting out licence.
But in their latest meeting with council officials, a new development emerged.
They have now been told they will also need public liability insurance.
Debz said:
"Planting our flowers has always made us feel proud and happy to be giving pleasure to not only ourselves and our neighbours,but the numerous amount of people local and visitors on holiday or on days out that make the effort to come and look at our beautiful displays. We've never had any trouble before and to be fair we won't stop until we get this sorted.
"Throughout lockdown it has given us such pleasure and kept our mental health in check in these dark and unsure times. Our little street is like a family rather than just neighbours and we'll keep fighting together as a united family."
Dorset Councillor Jon Orrell says he's working to find a solution for the street so the flowers can stay. That might include finding the money to buy public liability insurance for the whole street, so no one has to buy it individually.
He said:
"You can understand why, because people sue for all sorts of reasons.
"So what we're trying to work out is how we can get the insurance done without penalizing the residents, so seeing if we can put it on the council insurance or some other scheme.
"I really want those planters to stay there because they look great."
A Dorset Council Spokesman said:
“This situation has come about because we have had to act upon a number of complaints about the encroachment of plants, pots and furniture onto the highway. We have agreed with the residents the spaces where these are allowed.
"But to reduce the potential for future complaints and issues we have suggested that the residents apply for a planting out licence for which we won’t charge.
"Although a condition of the licence is that there is public liability insurance which may be part of the residents home insurance or they may wish to do this collaboratively."