Residents hit out as hanging floral displays in Cromarty deemed a hazard by local council

CUSTOMERS at a Highland cafe have accused the local council of losing the plot after it declared a war on flowers.

Four floral hanging baskets have been placed outside The Pantry cafe in the Black Isle village of Cromarty for more than a decade.

But a Highland Council official has demanded they be raised or removed or cafe owner Jean Henderson risks being hit with a £1000 fine after they were deemed a hazard for hanging too low.

The baskets hang on either side of the entrance to the cafe and although they are around six feet off the ground, the flowers have grown and droop lower.

Mrs Henderson said: “The whole thing is laughable.

“I’ve had the cafe for four years and they’ve been there. My daughter Jenny had it for seven or eight years before me and had the same hanging baskets.

“It’s not a genuine complaint. You can easily walk past. Surely there’s something more worthwhile the council can sink their teeth into?”

A folding table, two chairs and an ice cream sign outside the shop were also deemed unsafe by the council.

A Highland Council spokeswoman said it needed to take action after an accident near the cafe.

Mrs Henderson said the accident happened further down the street when a pensioner tripped on a kerbstone but reluctantly agreed to remove the table and chairs to avoid the fine.

She has no plans to take down the hanging baskets, however.

Just last week, Alister Mackinnon, the head of Highland Council’s budget team, said the local authority was in its “worst ever financial situation”.

The council has been forced to scale back its services and still needs to make £186 million of cuts over the next five years.

Highland Council also attracted criticism last year when it sent a threatening letter to Inverness city centre butcher Duncan Fraser And Son saying that its jolly butcher figure, which had stood outside the shop for more than 30 years, was unauthorised and faced removal.

It said the shop could incur a £2500 fine for using it but was forced into a U-turn after a public outcry and a petition opposing its stance gathered 1500 signatures in a week.

Cafe customer Rowena Watson, 56, said the council’s reasoning on the hanging baskets was “nonsensical”.

The baskets will be coming down one way or another next month as the cafe closes at the end of the season and Mrs Henderson wrote to the council to ask for a stay of execution for them two weeks ago but is yet to receive a response.

A council spokesman said: “The hanging baskets are below normal head height forcing pedestrians to either walk towards the kerb or duck. The council’s roads inspector asked for the tables and chairs to be removed and the hanging baskets taken down until they could be raised.”