Bright colours tumble from hanging baskets in Hemsby, not a wilting bloom or yellowing leaf to spoil the dazzling display.

For the dozens of arrangements that are cheering up the seaside holiday hub are made up of fake flowers.

The everlasting and low-maintenance additions have been paid for by the tourism Business Improvement District (Bid) levy and feature a mix of flowers and foliage.

But not everyone likes them, with one critic branding them 'naff' and 'cheap and nasty'.

Ann Reeve, of Seadells, who has been working on the project for nine months, said she was pleased with the baskets.

She said fake flowers were chosen because they were cheaper and more practical – the cost of watering fewer baskets 20 years ago eclipsing the £3,290 paid for the hire of the plastic ones.

Before the baskets were hung, all the lampposts were surveyed and two were replaced.

As well as being too costly, real flower baskets would have been too heavy for the columns which were only able to take the smaller imitation baskets.

One villager, who did not want to be named, said: 'It is obvious, even to the non-gardeners among us, that these are plastic.

'In fact, they are very naff.

'I believe this has made Hemsby a laughing stock when you consider the achievements of other villages in the locality and their success in villages in bloom competitions.'

Do you think the baskets of plastic flowers are a welcome addition to the holiday hub or do they look 'naff'? Write, including your full name and contact details, to EDP Letters, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich NR1 1RE.