St Andrews In Bloom to Cut Back on Number Of Floral Displays

The voluntary organisation St Andrews in Bloom has recently announced a reduction in the number of floral displays they will be able to put up around town next summer. In a statement posted on their Facebook page, St Andrews in Bloom stated that they will provide 140 fewer floral baskets and 25 fewer wooden barrels compared to their usual filling of over 300 planters. This decision was attributed to unpredictable income levels due to a lack of sufficient financial support.
The project has hitherto run very successfully, with thirteen current volunteers filling metal planters in locations such as Market Street and West Port, barrier baskets by the bus station and the harbour, and the war memorial planters. St Andrews in Bloom has won numerous prizes for their work, including ‘Best in Britain’ out of the ‘Coastal’ category in the 2019 Britain in Bloom competition.
A volunteer subcommittee focuses on raising funds, which includes donations from businesses in town such as Stagecoach, events like the St Andrews Ball, and private individuals. Organisations such as the R&A, the Community Trust, and Fife Council have also provided grants, though a representative of St Andrews in Bloom pointed out that their funders are “supporting lots of charitable groups in the town and cannot award us grants every year.”
Furthermore, these grants tend to be awarded for very specific capital projects. St Andrews in Bloom went on to explain that “they are not for the ongoing running costs for compost and plants. Each year we need £16,000 minimum to continue, and we are not achieving this income.”
This has resulted in the difficult decision to reduce the number of floral displays. Watering costs during the summer add up to £6,000, a large proportion of which is taken up by the hanging baskets. These are normally placed in the summer and are particularly demanding to look after, with their height necessitating the help of the Clean and Green Team. The Clean and Green Team is a project set up by BID St Andrews which works full time to maintain the cleanliness of the town and encourage practical environmentally friendly initiatives. Unfortunately, the Clean and Green Team is no longer able to help with hanging and removing the baskets, and they are too high for the volunteers to deal with themselves, contributing to the decision to not put them up next summer.
St Andrews in Bloom stressed how grateful they are “for the support we do receive and for the good wishes and messages of support from passersby when we are planting or messages on our Facebook page.”
“The many groups who do support us and many individuals who make donations are absolutely invaluable to us,” the organisation said.
An outpouring of support and dismay followed this announcement. Crowdfunding projects and petitioning the council have consequently been posed as potential options for the organisation to consider. There is enough sponsorship for the organisation to plant the metal planters, the war memorial, and the harbour and bus station barriers for the 2025 season, but beyond that, it remains uncertain how much more St Andrews in Bloom will have to cut back.
As they wrote in their Facebook post, “Our aim has always been to contribute to making St Andrews a really beautiful place to live, visit, and study in. We will strive to do as much as we can given these challenges.”
Photo from St Andrews in Bloom Facebook page
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