There’s plenty for them to see, too. Despite being surrounded and overshadowed
by both the M4 and A470, this accidental patch of greenery plays host to two
species of crickets (long-winged conehead and slender groundhopper). It also
features five species of orchid: southern marsh, bee orchid, pyramidal,
common twayblade and not just the normally pink common spotted, but rare
crimson and purple variants, some of which have been dug up and removed by
local flower-rustlers.
Meanwhile, in Truro, the message on the huge Trafalgar roundabout is spelt out
in lettuces. Not only have the members of the city’s horticultural
department created a full-scale image of the county’s winged emblem, the
Cornish chough, but they have also announced their success in the annual
Britain in Bloom contest, by creating the message “National BIB Finalist” in
edible leaf form.
Then there are the garden statue and design statements, some of which would
look bold in a full-scale RHS show, let alone at the junction of a
dual-carriageway.
Take the 15ft-tall, metallic flying geese that soar up from the roundabout in
the middle of the A6 at Belper, in Derbyshire. Or the giant silver cockerel
that guards the grassy traffic interchange at Deepdene, in Dorking (it
represents the five-toed variety of chicken peculiar to this area).
And for interpretation of a concept into full-blown roundabout reality, the
prize for thoroughness and commitment has to go to Seaside Garden, at Herne
Bay, in Kent. Here the notion of a traffic island has been given a whole new
marine twist, in the form of a sea-blue-painted perimeter, encircling not
just a bit of shingle and a few waving grasses, but a full-sized boat and a
pair of brightly painted beach huts.
“We have very little vandalism, too,” says Herne Bay’s Colette Ashwin-Kean.
“We made a point of involving local schoolchildren in the design and
construction of our Seaside Garden, and I think the whole community feels
rather proud of the finished product.
“In fact, it’s gone down so well, we’re thinking of building a similar
roundabout at the other end of the town.”
This might sound extravagant at a time when we are all having to dig deeper
into our pockets (and municipal parks departments are having to dig rather
less deep, with fewer staff). But this roundabout renaissance is, for the
most part, being funded not by the public purse, but by private sponsorship.
Recent years have seen the flowering of a small number of firms which
specialise in persuading local businesses to “adopt” a traffic intersection
in their area. Companies pay a sum of money: anything from £1,000 to £10,000
per year. In return they get to plant not just their corporate signboard in
the middle of a busy roundabout, but to have said roundabout planted,
beautified and maintained.
It’s big business. Over the past 10 years, Aberdeen City Council reckons to
have received half a million pounds’ worth of income via roundabout
sponsorship. In Wrexham, North Wales, it will cost you £2,000 per year to
have your name on even the barest bit of bypass.
Further south, the London Borough of Hillingdon, has 25 sponsored roundabouts
on its books (prices from £1,000 to £4,500 per year), while even a small
town like Burgess Hill, in Sussex, has all of its eight roundabouts happily
hooked up with sponsors, and a waiting list of firms keen to be involved.
The influx of cash has come with fresh attention for the quality of the
planting. Where once roundabouts might have been dreary affairs with lawn
and shrubs, now they are platforms for innovative horticultural thinking.
“Our displays have been developed using geraniums, polyanthus, hebe,
lavandula, flax and a variety of grasses,” says Paul Richards of the London
Borough of Hillingdon. “All planting schemes are carried out on an
individual basis, and careful consideration is given to soil type, soil
depth, ease of watering and exposure to wind, frost and sun.”
Plus car exhaust fumes, too. After all, these circular-shaped oases are
located in busy roads, not the middle of Kew Gardens. Certain horticultural
features aren’t an option. Towering, lush foliage, for instance.
“The layout of beds on a roundabout has to take vehicle sight lines into
account,” says Marilyn Ayoade, communications officer at Reigate and
Banstead Borough Council, in Surrey. “Tall planting is kept towards the
centre,” so cars can see what’s going on around the edges.
That said, local authorities can differ widely when it comes to safety
regulations.
“There are as many different rules as there are councils,” says Mark Barfoot,
of Sponsorthisroundabout.com. “In one county, the biggest signboard you’re
allowed is 800 by 225mm, but in the next-door county, it’s 1,625 by 625mm.
Some local authorities let you put up signs that dwarf the roundabout,
others make you put up signs so small, you can hardly read them.
“Some counties let you put up signs without applying for planning permission;
others insist you apply for planning permission at £325 a time.”
Some sponsors, he adds, also need help with the specifics of the gardening.
“It can be a minefield. You need to explain to them, for example, that it’s
fine to plant daffodils, but that they only flower for a short time. Not
only that, but for them to grow back healthily, you have to allow them to
die back and be deadheaded. Which means there’s going to be a fair bit of
time when the roundabout isn’t looking at its best.”
Along with the cost of maintenance, this is why more and more councils are
moving away from seasonal bedding displays, and towards all-year-round
arrangements, using dry beds instead of soil, plus drought-tolerant grasses
and perennials instead of short-lived annuals.
Others are opting for paving or mosaic-type decoration. Those who remain
wedded to a floral display are copying the artfully unkempt,
wild-flower-meadow look, as perfected on two edge-of-town roundabouts in
Loughborough, where it’s not just vehicles buzzing back and forth, but bees
and other varieties of insect.
Naturally, the sponsorship consultants talk up the commercial benefits of
exposure-by-roundabout.
“If a firm buys an advertisement in a newspaper, it’s in there one week, and
gone the next,” says Peter Knightley of Ukroundabouts.com. “But a roundabout
is seen every day by thousands of people.” What’s more, the money raised
helps beautify not just that individual roundabout, but the whole area.
“We realised some years ago that, with our roundabouts, we were sitting on a
gold mine,” says Patrick Phillips, head of horticulture at Bromley Council.
“The money we make from roundabout sponsorship pays for a substantial part
of our bedding throughout the entire borough.
“We’ve got just short of 100 roundabouts, of which 60 are already taken and
another 40 are available.”
Happy executives, plenty of lovely planting, and free-flowing traffic. At
these new roundabouts, businesses, plants and local councils all help each
other. Virtuous circles, you might say.
Three firms that bring roundabout sponsors and local authorities together
Ukroundabouts.com
(020 8869 9733)
Sponsorthisroundabout.com
(01424 205406)
Marketing Force
(01394 672467)
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