AFTER the storm of protest it suffered last year for mowing down daffodils before they bloomed, it might have been thought that Blackburn with Darwen Council had learned a lesson.

But, no -- they have done it again. This time, it is the daffs planted in a 350-yard grass verge at Haslingden Road, Blackburn, that they have destroyed.

What possesses these people? Their explanation is that it is policy to keep tidy verges where there had been complaints in previous years that they looked overgrown once the daffodils had died.

Well, perhaps, verges do look a little untidy if they are left uncut during the six weeks in which daffodils need to be left after flowering -- to ensure the bulbs have enough reserves to bloom again the following year. But what is the excuse for cutting them down before they have flowered?

And if this is the ludicrous logic for ensuring there is no mess afterwards, just what is the sense then of planting daffodil bulbs to begin with?

Their reasoning is rubbish. These daffodils were planted in the first place because people like them.

After a grim winter, they are the pleasing symbols of Spring and heralds of brighter, warmer days to come.

And because of this, people are prepared to put up with the less-attractive aftermath for a few weeks.

Other councils in East Lancashire consider it is a price worth paying for something that looks so nice, so why not Blackburn with Darwen?

Besides, the complaints that the council say they are responding to a Haslingden Road seem not to be about the verges being untidy during the crucial six weeks needed for the daffs to die down, but over them being left uncut for months afterwards when they could -- and should -- be mowed without any harm to the bulbs.

There enough problems with vandalism in Blackburn without the council adding to them with their own absurdity. Let there be no more of it.