Aberystwyth Town Council have donated flowers, which were pre-ordered for the summer season, to the community to help “beautify” the town and surrounding areas.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Aberystwyth Town Council were unable to plant flowers as usual. The council decided to give these flowers away to members of the community to “avoid them going to waste”.

Penparcau Community Forum have also managed to plant flowers throughout the village thanks to the donations.

On 5 June, Aberystwyth Town Council posted on Facebook that the flowers would be available to collect, in the afternoon and on the ensuing days, from North Road Park.

However, the initiative experienced unprecedented popularity and all the flowers ran out in the same afternoon.

Aberystwyth Mayor Charlie Kingsbury said: “In light of the restrictions to the works Aberystwyth Town Council had planned this year, it was important that the flowers we purchased for the town didn’t go to waste.

“The motion as originally proposed by Cllr Claudine Young was a sensible and pragmatic measure to ensure that the community on whose behalf we purchased the flowers would still have use of them.

“I was astonished by the public demand for what the council was offering, and with over 100 people (all carefully socially distancing) turning up, the flowers had all gone after just half an hour.”

Penparcau Conversations posted a Facebook appeal, on 4 June, for anybody who could support Penparcau Community Forum in making sure the planters had flowers for the summer.

Cllr Kingsbury then contacted Clare Jackson, local conversations officer at the Penparcau Community Forum, to ask if they would like flowers. The Penparcau Action Team (PAT) then collected the flowers to be planted throughout the village.

Clare said: “It was brilliant and so quick. Within an hour of putting the post up, Charlie got in touch. And within an hour of that the council got in touch.

“It’s killing two birds with one stone. It stopped them from being wasted which is superb. And it’s going to brighten up a lot of places in Aberystwyth and Penparcau.”

On the collaboration with Penparcau Community Forum, Cllr Kingsbury commented: “Coordinating with them meant that, thanks to the volunteers who planted them, the community of Penparcau - an important gateway to Aberystwyth itself - will still get those flowers to beautify the village as was originally intended by the council.

“Despite the hardships we’re facing at the moment, such community spirit is an uplifting thing to see. Thank you to everyone who was involved in the process."