THE chairman of the Alcester in Bloom committee has spoken of her devastation after members felt they had no option but to withdraw from the competition which has brought the town repeated successes.

At a meeting last week, a committee member proposed they should pull out of the competition because it was felt Stratford Council had failed to carry out gardening work in the town.

And the rest of the committee were left with no option but to vote to not enter the competition this year.

Chairman Maggie Payne said: "The whole committee feels disappointed that we have had to withdraw from the competition but we feel completely let down.

"We don't feel it would be fair to take the judges around the town where there are areas which obviously haven't been attended to."

After announcing Alcester's withdrawal from the annual competition, the committee was then told that the work it wanted doing would be done, but the committee stuck to their decision.

Mrs Payne said: "This just feels so sad, everybody has worked so hard but we felt there was no option.

"We would like to thank everybody for their hard work and although we are not entering the national In Bloom competition, the individual town competition will go ahead and we will be back next year."

Alcester Mayor Wendy Weatherhead said: "I completely respect the committee's decision to withdraw from the competition.

"And I know that the townsfolk will still do their best to make their gardens and the whole area look beautiful.

"Although we are not entering the competition, we know we have a town which is absolutely wonderful and we can be very proud of that."

Malcolm Simmons, director of operational services at the district council, confirmed Mrs Payne had reported a number of areas of concern.

He also said he would be holding a "post-mortem" with his staff to find out why Mrs Payne claimed she contacted the council a number of times but had been given no help.

He said: "The district council actually has no legal responsibility to cut grass on highway verges but we do carry out this operation.

"We feel the Alcester in Bloom committee wanted us to cut the grass on these areas to the same standard as people's gardens but this is not the case.

"We cut them but we are not even required to take the cuttings away.

"Alcester has also been offered the chance of being responsible for organising this job to be done themselves but have not gone with this option.

"Whether the committee has had difficulty keeping up its level of volunteers, I don't know, but I am disappointed they are blaming the district council.

"Grass cutting has been no worse or better than in previous years."