Colourful poppies plan to mark WWI centenary
Telford & Wrekin Council is planning to commemorate the centenary of the start of World War One with a blaze of colour.
The council is planning on planting poppies on some of the borough’s prominent gateway islands and is inviting parish and town councils the option of extending the planting to other areas of their parish.
Three mixes of poppies will be planted - Flanders Field, Lest We Forget and Old Comrades.
Preparation and sowing of the Flanders field poppy mix will start in the next few days to allow the winter cold to break any dormancy in the seeds. Least We Forget and Old Comrades mixes are a mix of native field poppy and cultivated red Shirley poppy to give increased reliability of flowering from a spring sowing.
Councillor Kevin Guy, chairman of the Armed Forces Community Covenant Partnership, said:
"We have made it a top priority that the borough marks the centenary of the First World War in 2014 in as colourful and memorable a way possible to ensure future generations never forget the great sacrifice past generations have made.
"Next year is special as it marks the centenary of a conflict which claimed thousands and thousands of lives so ensuring our prominent gateway islands have a planting of colourful poppies is a fitting tribute."
Councillor Shaun Davies, cabinet member for Neighbourhood Services, said:
"Telford is obviously known for its roundabouts and we go out of our way to ensure they have a beautiful display of wildflowers in any given year.
"We hope our parish and town councils will also buy into the scheme so that the borough is truly a blaze of colour."
