BUNGLING council staff were forced to remove hanging baskets they had put up by accident in Stanhill — and then put them back up again after residents complained.

Locals complained after seeing a cherry picker taking the baskets down two weeks after they were wrongly put up.

They were told a foreman had ordered them up in error after using an out of date list, and that they’d be rehung as a ‘gesture of goodwill.’ Secretary of the Stanhill Village Residents’ Association, Richard Hooper, said the council had apologised and sent him a ‘really nice letter’ explaining the mistake.

The 67-year-old said: “We found they had put them up by accident, then taken them down, and then put some of them back up again.

“They have put them all back up for now as a goodwill gesture.”

Mr Hooper said the village would get hanging baskets for the entirety of summer in recent years.

“This year I had been told we would not get any because of cuts. The next thing we had some up and we thought there had been a change of heart,” he said.

“Bless the council – they have tried to do something about it and to be fair, they have apologised and given us the baskets for the rest of the summer.

“But my question is why can’t we have them anyway? Why are we being penalised?”

The council’s portfolio holder for parks, Coun Ken Moss, said: “This year the councillors in Oswaldtwistle asked for hanging baskets to be installed around Rhyddings park and not in Stanhill.

“Unfortunately when the hanging baskets were being installed, some were also put up in Stanhill and were taken down when the mistake was discovered.

“I have spoken to the Parks Department and asked them to put some hanging baskets back up.”

Oswaldtwistle councillor Peter Britcliffe added: “I’m really glad this is sorted, but I’m a bit miffed residents were told I had asked them to be put somewhere else, and I have still not received an explanation for this.”