Flower power!

KEEPING the garden alive: Ann Smith with the green space she has single-handedly cultivated after vandals tried to destroy it

A RESOLUTE pensioner has rebuilt a community flower bed torn up by vandals after she had spent her own time and money creating it.

Ann Smith (66) spent part of her pension buying flowers and plants for the area near Buttermere Road after she became horrified at its rubbish-strewn state. But within weeks of the clean-up and as the new plants began to flower, they were left thrown across the path.

Ann said: “I am so upset by what has happened. I like to keep the area spotless and spent hours cleaning up.

“I spent my pension buying bedding plants and flowers to make it look nice and planted everything myself. They had just started to bloom.

“Then someone heartlessly came along, pulled up the plants and even stole some of them. It seems such a mean thing to do.”

Ann, who lives in Buttermere Road with her husband Kevin, said she wasn’t sure who to turn to when the garden was vandalised: “It was only a few plants, but I was so proud of what I had done,” she said.

“I won’t be defeated. I cleared the path again and replanted some of the flowers to bring a bit of life back. People should have more respect for their local community and have some pride in where they live.”