Case 7 - Local council refused to allow hanging baskets to be placed on lampposts until assessed by engineers

Note: this case was reviewed and its content updated in September 2020.

Issue

A local council was refusing to allow hanging baskets to be placed on lampposts for a Village in Bloom initiative until engineers had assessed the lampposts to show they were capable of holding the bracket and basket.

Panel decision

This may be a case of valid health and safety principles being applied in an overly-cautious and blanket way. The precautions that the council is expecting from the Village in Bloom organisers may be disproportionate to the risk involved.

Where:

• regular periodic inspections of the lamp posts have been carried out and a current certificate of conformity is available;
• adequate information about the lamp post’s construction is known; and
• the combination of fixing for the basket and pole type is considered suitable

Then the asset owner may only need to carry out a visual inspection to check that there had not been any changes in circumstances, such as ground movement, before approving the request to support the basket and bracket.