RESIDENTS have joined together to ward off council workers and tell them: "Hands off our daffodils!"

People living in Buncer Lane area of Blackburn want to protect the few remaining blooms after the Lancashire Evening Telegraph revealed how council workmen were chopping them as they cut grass.

The Rev Paul Battersby and church warden Kathleen Parkinson of St Mark the Evangelist church, in Buncer Lane, are among those protecting the remaining flowers.

Blackburn with Darwen council permitted its gardeners to clip the flowers because council workmen can't trim the grass around the stems.

The directive came after residents living near the patches complained about the long grass on Buncer Lane.

Mr Battersby said: "I wanted to put a three feet fence up here last year to protect them from children, but this year they have lasted better.

"I would be very upset if they cut these down. These are the last daffodils on Buncer Lane and I am very happy them have them."

Kathleen Parkinson said: "It was a shame when they cut all the others down. They did look nice, but they did look untidy when long."

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph was flooded with calls after we revealed how council workmen were lopping daffodils because they could not cut the grass around them.

People are furious the flowers were being chopped just a week into spring.

Callers called on the council to stop the daffodil cull straight away.

The mowing infuriated Mrs Mary Clarke, of Manor Road, who is a parishioner at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, Buncer Lane.

She said: "If they did not want them they could have asked the leaders of the church to pick them. It costs the church a fortune to get Easter flowers at Sacred Heart. There are lots of elderly people who appreciate flowers."

She added: "They have mown the daffodils when the buds where just about to open. If they had left them for three weeks more they would have died off anyway.

" Driving back up Buncer Lane in spring is lovely because of the flowers. Now they won't flower next year.

"I have written to the Town Hall to complain about it because it is just so destructive.

"I think it is criminal. If they do not want grass verges on Buncer Lane why not tarmac it off?

"In every other town I know want every bit of green they can get, and we have tin statues and trees."

A Blackburn with Darwen Council spokesman said they had received no complaints and had no plans to change their policy.