Vibrant plants and flowers are adding a splash of colour to Sunderland city centre this summer as work continues to make it a clean, green and attractive place to be.
More than 27,000 plants, all grown from seeds and cuttings in the council’s own nurseries have been planted in the city’s Mowbray Park, including:
- 4,000 in the beautiful carpet bed display near the fountain
- 10,000 on the terrace
- 8,000 in the park’s kidney shaped flower beds
- 5,000 in the central flowerbed and around the bandstand
And it isn’t just Mowbray Park that’s looking blooming lovely, with 30 plant and flower filled troughs, 50 hanging baskets and the introduction of an additional 18 planters to complement the existing, some of which will have further plants introduced to make them more vibrant – all bedecking streets across the city centre.
This is the latest phase of work to spruce up the city centre which began in April and has already seen 14 areas, equating to 720,061 square feet of city centre streets being deep cleaned while 90 fixed penalty notices have been served on people for dropping litter.
Over the same time period, the city centre has also hosted a number of high profile visits and events including the first Sunderland Food and Drink Festival, the Sunderland City Half Marathon and 10k, the Spice Girls concert at the nearby Stadium of Light and a visit from Northumbria in Bloom judges.
And there’s more to come with the Active Sunderland Festival in Mowbray Park on 31 July and a city centre music festival towards the end of September.
Councillor Amy Wilson, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, said: “This is all about making the most of our city centre by making it a clean, green and welcoming place to be.
“Our residents have told us that they want to live in a clean green city which is why we have invested an extra £460,000 into frontline environmental services.
“This has allowed us to do a lot of work with our partners Sunderland Business Improvement District (BID) since we launched our deep cleaning programme at the beginning of April.
“And people are beginning to notice the difference with lots of compliments and support from the public for what we’re doing.”
The city centre deep clean ties in with major plans to improve the city centre, with £0.5bn of private and public sector funding set to be invested in its transformation by 2030.