Residents have expressed their sadness after the council mowed down a community flower patch in east Reading.

Local people had planted seeds, producing beautiful flowers at the green space between Cumberland Road and Amity Road, in Newtown.

But they found the flowers had been mown down by Reading Borough Council (RBC) on Friday, July 2.

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RBC said the flower patch was mowed down because there was no official agreement between residents and the council to retain the space as a wildflower area.

Local resident Gemma Gleeson said: “So neighbours have been planting seeds, bulbs, flowers and in one second RBC grass cutters have ruined it. What a joke.”

Rhiannon Stocking-Williams added: “I’m gutted. Walking past it every day and watching the new plants grow has been such a joy.”

And local Green Party councillor Brenda McGonigle said: “This is very sad.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think the team that mow are horticulturists and are paid to just mow stuff down, weed or flower.

“The same with the team that spray weed killer all over the place. We can ask the council if they will leave it to locals to deal with and see what they say.”

A council spokesman said the mowing down of the flower patch was “obviously highly regrettable” and said it was due to the full process not being followed to set up a local wildflower area.

The council said a local resident made initial contact over nine months ago about the possibility of creating a local wildflower area, but this was not followed up.

A spokesman said: “We regularly encounter differing views within single neighbourhoods on this subject.

“Some people want to leave the grass uncut to encourage wildflowers and others prefer a mown area.

“Because of this, we will always ask residents who want to create a wildflower area to seek local agreement from a majority of their neighbours, at which point the council can confirm agreement in writing and alert the local grass cutting team.

“In this instance, it appears this process was not followed.”

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Where the correct process has been followed across the borough, there has not been a single incident of an area being wrongly mowed, according to RBC.

The council said it would be “very happy to speak to local residents with an idea to include the area in our official re-wilding programme, with the consensus of the local residents”, asking residents to get in touch.

According to the council, many of the flowering plants have set seed already this year and so seeds from these plants should be lying in the cut grass and should germinate next season.

The spokesman added: “The council already has an active rewilding programme of its own and are eager to support rewilding where we are able.”