Community groups want to continue managing flower beds

The community groups currently caring for Newtown’s Jubilee Beds will have to reapply for the plots as the Town Council prepares to open up the sites to all local charities this month.

The three beds, located outside Iceland supermarket, were created in 2022 to mark the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. Under the original agreement, the beds were offered to charities on a three-year licence, with two maintained by the Newtown Garden Club and one by the Men’s Shed charity.

Both organisations have informed the council they would like to continue looking after the beds beyond the initial term. However, a report to the Services Committee confirms that the council must follow its established procedures, which require the opportunity to be publicly opened to any interested charity during December.

“In accordance with our procedures, the opportunity must be opened to all interested charities during December,” the Operations Manager states in the report.

Each bed received a £500 start-up fund in the first year of the scheme and a maintenance top-up of £300 in years two and three. The council report does not specify whether future funding arrangements will be the same, but the review of applicants will take place once the December window closes.

The outcome of the process is expected to be reported back to councillors early in the new year.