'Ask questions before you get angry' - Council hits back over wildflower project backlash

Council Environment Executive Member Coun Jenny Kent said she understood why people had such strong feelings about the scheme when work began at the Station Rise embankment last year.

But the Labour executive member added those people a petition claiming the walls were neglected could have avoided unnecessary upset if they had approached the council for answers first.

Coun Kent’s comments at an Environment Decision Session comes as flowers planted through the York Walls in Bloom project are expected to be on display from late spring.

The scheme, inspired by the Moat in Bloom display at the Tower of London, aims to create a changing display of wildflowers from spring to autumn.

Wildflower displays are deemed more environmentally-friendly than traditional bedding plants.

It also comes as council maintenance budgets are stretched amid ongoing financial pressures facing the authority which faces a black hole of up to £10m-a-year according to its own forecasts.

The project has moved to a second location following the planting at Station Rise last year, with seeds sown by the Red Tower off Foss Island Road in April.

Flowers at the Red Tower is expected to come fully into bloom next year.

A council report stated they would take stock of the results of the project after the growing season ends in autumn.

It added that the second phase of a related scheme overseen by the Friends of York Walls by the Postern Tower in Fishergate is set to begin this year.

Their trial is set to see how well different plant species have established themselves and how they cope with the twice-yearly cutting of wall embankments to inform future efforts elsewhere.

Another embankment by Queen Street near York Station is also set to be sown with a wildlflower mix.

But the project sparked a backlash when the grass on the Station Rise embankment was left growing long in the run up to flowers being sown.

A petition calling for the condition of the Bar Walls and York’s parks to be restored was signed by 3,126 people.

Petition author Shane Sayner said the embankment appeared poorly-maintained and neglected despite its location next to one of the city’s leading monuments.

Mr Sayner added an update to the petition on Saturday, May 3 showing that the wildflowers had not yet grown.

Environment Executive Member Coun Kent told the environment decision session on Tuesday, April 29 that she welcomed petitions and the care that people had for the walls.

But she added a basic amount of fact-finding was needed before people raise their voice.

The executive member said: “I understand why the petition came about, Station Rise is the place we all look to and it’s the Instagram shot of the city and last year people may have wondered what was happening.

“But ask questions before you get angry and stir other people up.

“There’s always the possibility that this might not work, but the ambition and plan is that we will have a great array of wildflowers there.

“Some people are wedded to the old-style bedding plants and we want to hear from everyone, but there could have been a simple conversation with myself or a council officer about what the plan was before a petition was written.”