THE Royal Oxfordshire Horticultural Society has been forced to cancel its annual Flower Show and Charity Day after failing to get a grant.
The show has run for 25 years in Florence Park, Cowley, but the society has been forced to shelve the September event after a bid for £2,000 was turned down by Oxford City Council.
Last year 2,000 people attended the show, and society chairman Freddie Drinkwater said people would be disappointed that the traditional event could not now take place. He said: “The planning for this year’s event was well under way when we learned that we would not receive any financial support from the city council.
“We are a society manned by volunteers with a limited budget and unable to support the event on our own.”
City council spokesman Fiona Colcutt said: “We received 50 applications... requesting a total of £285,406; the budget available was £97,064.”
l A garden furniture retailer has won praise at the Chelsea Flower Show. Banbury-based Oxfordshire Garden Furniture won an outstanding presentation award for its stand – the first garden furniture company ever to do so.
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