Councillor brands city centre planters an ‘absolute failure’

Planters on Canterbury’s St George’s Street have had new shrubs put in to discourage littering.

Councillor Charlotte Cornell criticised the planters that were added to the high street as a part of the redesign last year.

She said: “They have been an absolute failure… They are poorly designed and look like bins.”

The original plants had all either died or been removed by antisocial behaviour.

The Canterbury City Council cabinet member thought the design of the planters led some to believe they were bins and contributed to littering.

Councillor Cornell said: “I stood about a meter or two away from them and I thought, yeah, I can see how people could make that mistake and toss a crisp packet in.

“They weren’t commissioned by us, but we are going to have to improve use of them in order for them not to look like bins.

“So, myself and my colleague and friend who’s in charge of enforcement, we’ve put a lot of work into getting new planting to go in, much taller planting, so that it’s obviously a tree or a bush rather than a bin.”

The more prominent plantings were put into the planters last week.

A Canterbury City Council spokesperson said: “the original planters were attracting litter and have now been replaced and planted with shrubs to further improve the appearance of St George’s Street.”