I WAS devastated to find that my favourite flowerpot man in this year's Settle Flowerpot Festival has disappeared! Gone! Cut off with the job half done, and flushed down the toilet!

'Man having a dump' has been the highlight of my trips to Settle's tip (sorry, North Yorkshire Household Waste Recycling Centre), so it was in a grief-stricken whisper that I asked "What happened? Was it.....Wind?" but the Settle tip's team, ever-professional and determined not to be caught with their pants down, declined to comment.

I can only assume that this ingenious, inventive, and thought-provoking work of art has not met with the approval of North Yorkshire's Waste Recycling authorities! It would appear that they took one look and said he was "Rubbish, had to be dumped, never be seen to disgrace Settle's tip again!"

I wonder if the NYCC really have the right to condemn the flower pot man to being flushed down his own loo. Was he really so offensive? Did he break any laws? Is this the sort of authoritarian attitude we can expect when NYCC takes total control and Craven District council is consigned to a similar dustbin?

While one could argue that a flowerpot man sitting on a toilet is perhaps a little tasteless, the great-men-in-charge-of-ensuring-that-the-tip-is-tasteful said that the flowerpot poppies, which had decorated the back wall of the premises also had to be trashed.

This I find hard to understand; the flowers, remembrance poppies, were lovely; someone had invested a lot of thought and time into making them and hanging them, they were a valid contribution to Settle's festival, and to insist that they be removed, a mere three weeks before the end of the festival is, to my mind, rubbish!

Frances Leakey

Settle

In response, Michael Leah, North Yorkshire County Council's Assistant Director Travel and Environment, said: “It was great to see our site staff support the very popular flowerpot festival in Settle and bring joy to visitors.

"The flowerpot was built in the spirit of the festival but it was always going to be a temporary feature due to the constraints of the site. We will continue to support the festival for years to come.”