GREEN FINGERS AWARD
Goes to...
SALFORD CITY COUNCIL
Yes, after wheelbarrowing £19million last year to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Garden in Worsley, including £9million to Peel Holdings (see here), Salford City Council this year managed to fork out almost £27,000 on the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park for a five day exhibit of a garden shed.
The Council handed designer, Tim Denton, the bulk of the £26,841 budget to come up with a "custom made and innovatively decorated haven" that referenced "the sights and experiences of the canal environment".
The designer shed was exhibited at Tatton in July, where visitor tickets cost £32, and was part of the Blooming Bridgewater project which is, in turn, part of a £3.6million Heritage Lottery Fund scheme, with £1.9million in match funding from the Council (see previous Salford Star article for details - click here).
The massive amounts of public money are being used to tart up the Peel Holdings-owned Bridgewater Canal and its environments. And the designer shed was built to echo "the industrious and inventive spirit of 1761 that sparked a period of growth and transformation".
Salford Council knows all about the "industrious and inventive spirit" of gardening, having also ploughed £300,000 into the hopelessly failed Biospheric Project `urban growing centre' in Blackfriars which is now a weed garden (see here).
So, ladies and gentlemen, please put on your rose-tinted glasses, mow your meadow of community health cuts and fondle your man-cave for the winner of the Salford Star Mary Burns Green Fingers Award...
Salford City Council!
If anyone from Salford Council would like to make an acceptance speech please use the comments box below...
Winners of the 2016 Salford Star Mary Burns Awards
* Nice Work If You Can Get It Award - Hazel Blears - click here
* Ethical Hypocrisy Award Co-operative Group - click here
* George Bush Read My Lips Award Hazel Blears, Phil Mayall and Councillor Derek Antrobus - click here
* Services To Salford Heritage Destruction - Fred Done - click here
* Pimp My Poverty Award - Salford City Council - click here
* Feed The Rich Award - Peel Holdings - click here
* International Award - Manchester City Council - click here
* `How The Fuck Did You Manage To Ignore Almost 3 Million People?' Award - Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) - click here
* Services To Social Housing - Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett click here
* Affordable Housing Hypocrisy Revolving Door Award Councillor Paul Longshaw click here
* Uncle Joe Stalin Award for Open and Democratic Government Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett click here
* Gary Neville Finger In Pies Award - Salford City Council - click here