Agenda item - Petition for Debate - Save the Floral Clock

37a.1  The mayor stated that the Council’s Petition Scheme provide that where a petition secures 1,250 or more signatures it can be debated at a meeting of the Full Council. There were three petitions which had reached that threshold. The Mayor invited Greg Fittock to join the meeting and present the first petition.

37a.2  Laura King presented a petition for debate titled ‘Save the Floral Clock’ which had received 1969 signatures at the time the agenda was published.

37a.3  Councillor Robins replied:

Thank you for your petition, and for all the interest in this much-loved part of the city. I know that the floral clock has been a very important part of the green space, and indeed many people refer to the whole area as ‘the floral clock’.  

The council alone does not have the resources to install a new clock to replace the current clock which has not worked for many, many years.  Also, the original design involved thousands of bedding plants being planted and then removed each year, which isn’t in line with the more sustainable approach to our green spaces in place now.  

We are taking forward a consultation and will consider everyone’s views in deciding the options for the future, and we have set a working group to co-ordinate this open space that will be used for many years to come. The discussion and decisions will include what we do in relation to the clock area, and whether it is replaced or another option agreed. Whatever we do needs to be affordable, both to be installed and maintained. Thanks again for your interest and collaboration on this. 

37a.4  Councillors Theobald and Fishleigh spoke on the matter.

37a.5 Councillor Miller responded: 

I welcome your passion for Palmeira Square; it is one of my favourite bits of Hove too. But I have to say that I personally incline towards reinventing. This was a reinvention in 1953 and I’m sure there were objections at that point to changing a much-loved feature and the floral clock was put in.  

In modern terms, there’s a reason why so many councils are removing them. It's deeply environmentally unsustainable, growing thousands of plants. Because of the way they work, they need to be annual bedding plants which means thousands of plants are grown. It needs a high degree of weeding and, in fact, in 1973, 20 years after it was found, I've spoken with somebody who was in the gardening team then who said that actually Palmeira Square and the floral clock had its own team of five gardeners. 

 
So that is a different time, a different way of gardening, high uses of pesticides in order to keep the area free of weeds, lots of hand weeding. It is not how we want to garden these days. We want to think about how we can preserve that square and make it better for the future and to create something new. And I agree that we do need to reference it and think about it, but I strongly would advocate that we have the courage to reinvent. 

This is not an original feature. The original space was more lawned. It is a chance for us to reimagine the square and actually make it relevant to today, rather than trying to recreate something which is environmentally unsustainable, extremely expensive to maintain - if you think about the cost of five gardeners annually, that is a lot of money. We cannot afford it in any way, either environmentally or financially, and I think we can come up with a better and more exciting solution which is sustainable and we'll have just the same kind of passion and love in 70 years’ time as this has had.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the petition be noted.