PLANTING in Petersfield has been an expensive disaster, town councillors were told last week. Members say they have unfairly "copped the flak" for a catalogue of problems which have seen some flowerbeds in the town left completely bare at times during the summer. The current contractor, Philip Voice Ltd, which took over the £8,000 contract for 2005, says contaminated compost and a proliferation of chickweed was to blame for the recent planting fiasco. And company representatives said this week they were "devastated" by their inability to provide the town with the floral display it deserved. At a meeting last week, grounds committee chairman Chris Jenner said the council was paying for a service it was not getting. He said: "We have copped an awful lot of flak for this. Quite rightly because it has been below par. "I would have thought the autumn planting would have been in by now. We have got bare beds. They have been bare for a very long time." And his colleague Mary Vincent added: "This is a very, very expensive way of doing it." They had earlier listened to a report from contracts manager Peter Jones, who said this was the first time the issue had been placed on the grounds committee agenda. "I am first to admit it is less than pleasing," said Mr Jones. "They have had this unfortunate experience of making up beds in contaminated soil which has had to be dug out. "In some defence of the contractor, I think he did the best he could in the circumstances. "It has turned out a disaster, but it could equally have gone the other way. They gave a fair shot at it." The council has beds in College Street, next to the Festival Hall, at the town mosaic and on the corner of St Peter's Road. It also has tubs in Dragon Street, High Street and at the roundabout on Bell Hill. Flowers on many of them have had to be ripped up in recent months to decontaminate underlying soil. But news of the empty beds has been met with disappointment by Petersfield in Bloom (PIB), which pulled out of managing the flower displays amid a row over town council funding. In a PIB statement, secretary Linda Daubney said the displays were an "unexpectedly sad sight". She said: "Petersfield In Bloom's committee has been deeply disappointed by the poor, and, for part of the summer, non-existent floral displays in the town council's flower beds. "The town council was in possession of PIB's detailed plans for the 2005 season. "The town council received these, as they do each year, when we applied for the annual grant to create both summer and winter planting schemes. "For the fourth year running the town council only granted the amount to cover the planting, watering and maintenance of the summer scheme. "The small PIB committee had managed three years of fundraising to cover the winter cost, but it had become increasingly difficult to do this and finance the competition at the same time. "Regretfully, the committee took the decision in autumn 2004 that if the town council's 2005 grant did not cover the cost of both summer and winter schemes PIB would no longer organise and manage the planting of the town council displays. "The town council appointed a new contractor to carry out the planting scheme, and while PIB is very well aware that it is not a simple matter to plant and maintain successful floral schemes, the 2005 town council flowerbeds are an unexpectedly sad sight. "We are very relieved that we did not enter the town for Southern England In Bloom this year, particularly as Petersfield has a reputation for floral excellence, having won its category more than once in the past. "We have written to the Petersfield Town Mayor, Vaughan Clarke, expressing our disappointment at the appearance of the town council flowerbeds. "He has suggested a meeting to discuss the whole matter 'so that we can all be justly proud of next year's planting'." But Christian Dupont of Philip Voice Ltd said the company had done everything in its power to provide the best service possible, and that it was now dipping into its own funds to finish the job it started. Mr Dupont told The Herald: "We were given a duff batch of compost. Some of it was not sterilised. And some led to massive chickweed growth. "The reason the beds have been empty is that the weed re-occurred. The only way to deal with it was to rip out the plants. And we are replanting at our own cost. "We even dug five tons of soil from the infected beds, again at our own cost. "Plants are on the way, but we have had to leave the beds empty to see where the weeds came back up. "We are devastated. It was the one chance we got to give something back to the town. We tried really hard to get it right. "Our guys are local, we are local and we want this to work. This is something that for us would have been great. But we never had a chance once the plants were ripped out. "I'm not walking away from this. I don't want to let anybody down and I maintain that. "Nature throws you the odd curve ball from time to time. But the buck stops with me." Mr Dupont said the company had not made money from the contract, and that Philip Voice Ltd stood to lose up to £2,500. "We are willing to lose the money to make the town look good again," he said. "We would obviously like to have another go at it next year. "I have spent £9,000 already and I have still got to plant. But the beds are no longer infected, and on September 21 - 22 we are scheduled to have a 10-man planting operation for the 3,500 red, white and blue polyanthus we have just bought." "Hands up. The mistake has happened, and now we are putting winter planting in. "I am the one who has let the town down, but we also feel like our suppliers let us down. "I will be explaining what has happened in front of the grounds committee soon. It was a most upsetting set of circumstances which to a degree were out of our control."