A STOURBRIDGE councillor has hit out at the “horrendous” state of green care in the borough and said the town’s Bloom campaign missed out on a gold gong this time due to a lack of weed control and untidiness.

The town has won ten top gold awards over the years, eight of them consecutively from 2008 to 2015, and again 2019 after a four-year break from entering and again in 2021 when the campaign re-emerged after the Covid pandemic.

Volunteer groups returned with enthusiasm to work on this year’s campaign which brought the judges back to town for the first time since 2019 as the Heart of England Bloom campaign was cancelled in 2020 due to coronavirus.

But it was not enough to see the town return to its glittering gold form.

Councillor Cat Eccles (Wollaston and Stourbridge Town), who has tended one of the planters near the ring road, said at Monday’s full council meeting that Stourbridge had only managed to achieve silver gilt status this time round – despite the hard work of those involved.

She said: “I’ve had sight of this year’s Stourbridge in Bloom scorecard, and after winning gold in 2021, they scraped a silver gilt this year.

“Despite the best efforts of volunteers, the scores were brought down by lack of weed control and general untidiness around Stourbridge Ring Road and Mary Stevens Park – the areas tended to by green care.”

She also criticised the standards of the council’s green care services in Stourbridge, saying bins had been left unemptied for weeks in Stourbridge parks and she emptied one dog waste bin herself as it was overflowing with a “nauseating smell emanating from it”.

Labour councillor Cat added: “Green care is horrendous, with trees and bushes left untrimmed on public footpaths and careless weedkiller spraying on residential streets.

“Several residents submitted complaints after operatives sprayed over their property boundaries killing their homegrown plants.

“I then had to chase responses for several weeks while officers played pass the parcel with replying to residents. When I finally got a response, it was to say the carelessness had occurred due to a high use of agency staff.”

Fellow Labour councillor Adrian Hughes (Upper Gornal and Woodsetton) also raised concerns and said: “This borough is a tip. Everywhere is weeds. Fields are not being cut on time, alleyways are a joke, drains are a joke.”

Councillor Shaz Saleem, the council’s cabinet member for highways and public realm, said afterwards that three of the borough’s parks had achieved Green Flag status this year and the council has invested an extra £90,000 into clearing gullies this financial year.

He said the council supported the community to achieve a gold award in Halesowen and silver gilt in Stourbridge in this year’s Bloom campaign and he added: “To achieve silver alone requires ‘very good’ standards of planting, environment and community drive. Of course, there will be areas highlighted where improvements could be made and we are very committed to supporting the community again on this important competition next year.”

He said he has seen staff carrying out their work and the “passion and pride they take in ensuring our borough is looked after is something to be proud about” and he added: “There is no denying there has been challenges, but our staff have worked incredibly hard to overcome this.”