Eight tonnes of flowering bulbs are being planted in Croydon this week using new high-tech equipment from The Netherlands.

Croydon's horticultural team are to start planting today (Tuesday, November 13) in New Addington using the using the machinery, which plants 10,000 bulbs a minute.

Starting at King Henry's Drive, the teams will be working their way around the borough to introduce flowers to scores of sites, including verges, parks and roundabouts.

Councillor Raj Chandarana, cabinet member for culture, said: "These bulb displays bring a real feel-good factor to local neighbourhoods.

"A job that would previously have taken perhaps weeks of back-breaking manual labour has now been reduced to a few days."

The Smarter Croydon project provided substantial funding for this new planting following calls from many residents who want to see more flowering colour in the spring.

The Dutch operators of the new equipment are travelling around the UK during the current planting season, so the costs of the operation are effectively being shared between a number of authorities.

November 13, 2001 10:00