IT is known for its outstanding natural beauty, rolling hills and picture-postcard villages. But have you ever wondered how much it costs to keep the towns and villages of Surrey looking so picturesque?

Data collected on the amount councils spend on flower beds, hanging baskets and troughs shows that more than £400,000 has been spent in the county over the past three years.

In 2017/18, Surrey’s borough and district councils spent a combined £139,790.97 watering, planting and maintaining the hanging baskets and troughs in towns and villages.

In 2016/17 they spent £161,300.28 and in 2015/16 the figure was £113,047.22, making a combined total of £414,138.47 from 2015 to 2018.

The figures have been released as part of a Freedom of Information request to all 11 district and borough councils in Surrey. The combined data does not include Mole Valley, Spelthorne or Tandridge, which were unable to provide figures – or those maintained and planted by parish councils, private companies or organisations.

Guildford Borough Council spent the most in 2017/18, pumping £42,279.34 into their 1,726 flower beds, 280 hanging baskets and 60 troughs, while Waverley Borough Council splashed out £11,111 on its 1,226 flower beds, baskets and troughs – the second highest amount spent in Surrey.

This pales by comparison, however, with the £105,900 budgeted by Farnham Town Council to be spent on its 2019 entry to the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom competition – the only town in Surrey to do so.

Defending Farnham’s In Bloom spend in December, town council leader Carole Cockburn said: “You have to put some money in sometimes to get money out.”

? Waverley residents should drop unwanted synthetic Christmas trees off at their nearest recycling centre. Real Christmas trees can be dropped off at Haslemere War Memorial recreation ground car park in Scotland Lane and at Woolmer Hill Sports Ground car park in Woolmer Hill Road.