Saturday, February 11, 2012

Swastika flower arrangement removed from council roundabout

Council workers have removed this civic flowerbed after it was grown in the shape of a swastika. Gardeners hastily dug up the blue centaurea perennial display after complaints from that it looked like the infamous Nazi symbol.

Locals in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, reacted with amger over the embarrassing gaffe - on one of the town's main roundabouts next to its train station. Mike Donoghue, commenting about the swastika display said: "How do you accidentally leave flowers in the shape of a swastika?"


Photo from SWNS.

Andrew Joules added: "Now I know that Weston-super-Nightmare is twinned with Hildesheim in Germany - but this is just a step too far." North Somerset Council said the symbol was created by accident after certain flowers were removed, leaving just the outline of the swastika.

A spokesman explained: "This planting formed part of a random pattern in one of the flower beds we maintain. When summer bedding was removed in November, the centaurea perennials were left in place to give the bed a splash of winter colour and so the bed was not totally bare. After we had a call about the pattern we have taken all the plants out."

1 comment:

Insolitus said...

It's not a random pattern, the plants were originally planted in that arrangement. Removing other plants didn't make the swastika somehow just appear, it was there all along.