Around 50 business owners bought and installed the hanging baskets outside their premises before Tulip Time.

But some of the baskets had to be taken down after property managers complained about OH&S risks and objected to holes drilled in buildings to install the brackets.

Mr Springett said instead of the flowering baskets, ugly graffiti had proliferated in Bowral.

“I’d rather have hanging baskets outside Springetts Arcade than graffiti,” he told chamber members at the October meeting last week.

“I think they look pretty in front of Springetts Arcade and I’m proud to keep them up – I think they should be in all three towns.”

Mr Springett said more hanging baskets in the main street would have greater impact.

“We are always hearing people say that Bowral looks dismal,” he said. “We are a tourist destination and we should do whatever we can to make the town look attractive.

“There are plenty of opportunities to make the town look attractive and different and springtime is the perfect time.

“Surely property owners would rather have a nice basket than graffiti on their walls.

“We need to be creative.

“This [the graffiti] is not creative.”?

Mr Springett said he had asked the police to take action on the graffiti which has appeared all over town in recent weeks.

“There has been graffiti around before but it is definitely getting worse,” he said.

Mr Springett said the graffiti, much of it above the shop awnings, would be expensive for business owners to remove or paint over and many tradesmen were not interested in the job.