It is no secret that we were once envy of the world when it came to tending our gardens, beautifying public places, parks covered with dazzling plants with rainbow colours that would bring joy to every heart. (“Flower pots in street”, Your Views, March 19).

Now we are at the bottom of the league, as those who travel to Europe would readily acknowledge how well maintained the parks, open spaces and roundabouts are in countries like Spain, Scandinavia and Northern Europe.

In the Canary Islands and Spain and Italy, dual carriageways and motorways have central reservations — normally six to ten feet wide — covered with evergreen plants, mainly oleanders and hibiscus.

These sub-tropical bushy plants are cleverly manipulated into standard mini-trees that flower throughout the year, giving sweet scent and are watered by automatic rubber pipes and sprinklers.

Moreover, most roundabouts have fountains, work of art, statues and colourful lights, presumably constructed with EU funding mostly paid by us.

Most surprising were modern exercise machines everywhere in the open, working on just one Euro, without being vandalised, as would be the case here.

In Finland, we were surprised to see all roadside trees were of the same height, size and planed equidistant to a foot. It would be difficult to find a single pothole on these roads.

It is time we beautify our roads with similar plants — as oleanders shrubs and hibiscus are hardy plants capable of withstanding our winter —to minimise the gloom and doom of our dark and damp winter months.

The money could come out of the £15billion overseas aid budget, which is being spent on undeserving projects in countries better off than us.

Bhupendra M Gandhi

via email