LYME Regis Town Council is committed to “raising the standard” of the Langmoor and Lister Gardens in the hopes of one year entering the South West Britain in Bloom competition.

At a meeting of the town management and highways committee, councillors were considering entering Lyme Regis into the competition, but many said the town and gardens were not yet ready.

Members expressed a want to getting the gardens “looking like they used to” with many feeling they had “deteriorated”.

Cllr Jeff Scowen said: “It seems that we are going towards doing something with our world class location that is our gardens, but I understand this is a long-term project for these bloom awards but I do not want to seem in any way not to press ahead with getting these gardens looking like they used to.

“I have been here 7 years and they have definitely deteriorated.

“It is such a magnificent position to use and everything, we really, really must now make an effort to do something about them.

“I really want to do something with these gardens so that they can look fantastic.

“You have only got to go around places like Sidmouth to see how far we are behind in our floral display.”

Cllr Derek Hallett said that many of the plants that are in the gardens were put in by West Dorset District Council to “hold the place together” following a landslide, but “there isn’t a lot of colour”.

Cllr Brian Larcombe suggested deferring entering the competition until the gardens were at a standard that would enable them to be a winner.

He said: “We should defer it until we know that gardens are up to a standard that we could have a reasonable chance of entering.

“Until then, don’t commit to this until we know the cost, the true value and we are ready to do it.”

Matt Adamson-Drage, operations manager for the town council, said that the regeneration of the gardens is a project they have already started and when a new head gardener was appointed, they would focus on the gardens.