A cunning plan for saving taxpayers’ money was revealed recently by East Devon District Council. Valuable flowers are being stolen from municipal flower displays on a regular basis in Axminster, Exmouth and Sidmouth. ‘One week we lost about 50 heathers from a garden in Honiton, which cost about £200,’ said an exasperated councillor.
To counter this, the council is tagging flowers with microchips, which can then be scanned to determine where they come from. ‘They will be tagged randomly in East Devon,’ warns the councillor, ‘so people will have to be on their guard.’
The man behind the plan is the council’s Parks Development Officer. ‘Plant thefts have been a problem this year and a waste of council tax payers’ money,’ he says. ‘Microchips have come down in price and now only cost a matter of pence, making it feasible for us to use them as a deterrent. They last for ever, even if the plant dies.’
Now if only they could tag taxpayers’ money going into the pension pots of senior council executives, then we’d really be on to something.