LOCAL traders are being urged to "do their bit" by supporting this year's Alton in Bloom display.
The appeal follows Monday's meeting of the Alton Promotion and Marketing Forum where members heard that some traders will not be sponsoring lamp post displays or purchasing hanging baskets because they are too hard up.
Leading the line-up is multi-national store Woolworth which, according to Alton Chamber of Trade and Industry secretary David Gay, cannot afford to sponsor a floral display.
While understanding the pressure on some of the smaller traders, Pat Lerew felt it was short sighted not to support an initiative designed to attract people into the town.
"If you are wanting to attract more customers the last thing you should do is to cut your advertising and promotional budget," she said.
According to Mr Gay, some of the smaller companies has said that they could not afford floral displays this year because of the hike in East Hampshire District Council's car parking charges. They were having to pay twice as much for season tickets and this had made severe inroads into company budgets, he said.
But, he warned, with just a handful of traders coming forward so far to sponsor the initiative, the fear was that the forum would be left with a deficit which could seriously affect the staging of next year's event. "And Alton and its traders will be the losers," warned Mr Gay.
The judges for this year's Southern England in Bloom competition will be visiting Alton on July 23.