'GREEN' Totnes has been forced to give up its hope of becoming a Britain in Bloom winner for the first time in more than 20 years... because not enough people are bothered.

The Totnes in Bloom group has axed plans to enter the national competition because it cannot find enough people to help make the town bloom.

The town's bloom group organiser Debbie Miller-Wright said she was 'utterly disappointed' and said: "I'm beginning to feel like I am fighting a losing battle.

"Businesses are buying the hanging baskets, but nothing else is happening."

The Totnes in Bloom group was re-formed four years ago as Ms Miller-Wright and her committee organised an annual town competition.

The town council gave its support by supplying hanging baskets which local businesses sponsored outside their premises in the town's main street.

Although entries were a bit thin on the ground in some categories, it was announced last year it was planned to enter the town into the Britain in Bloom competition this year which would have been the first time in more than 20 years the town had taken part.

During the 1970s and 1980s the town clocked up no less than nine certificates for exceptional merit and a tourist association cup for its floral efforts in the prestigious bloom competition.

But the Totnes in Bloom committee folded in the late 1980s, bringing the town's flower-filled competition attempts to an end.

The group was re-formed, but despite attempts to grow the organisation the bloom group has only won two new members in the last four years and now numbers around just eight volunteers.

Ms Miller Wright pointed to areas of the town which were covered in graffiti and weeds.

"Look at the state of the old Dairy Crest site," she added.

"I would be embarrassed even to enter the town into the competition this year," she said.

"The judges would come around and laugh at us, probably."

Yet, she said, other towns like next door Kingsbridge find both the volunteers and the funding the put on a bloom show.

She said instead of entering the competition, the bloom group planned to put its energies this year into fundraising 'to see where we go from here'.