JUST days after revealing that Southampton's high-profile Balloon and Flower Festival would be scrapped city bosses have come up with a replacement for the event - a flower festival.

Last week leisure bosses said the annual event on the Common would be axed because of a dramatic drop in the number of visitors it attracted.

However, only two days later, the city council has revealed it will still hold a flower show, which it hopes to build in popularity over a number of years so that it rivals the prestigious Hampton Court Flower Show.

The decision has been criticised by opposition parties, who have accused the Liberal Democrat-run council of a U-turn which would turn the city into a "laughing stock".

Labour group leader Councillor June Bridle said: "The show will have a very limited draw. Unless they are going to make it a proper event which has a mass appeal, it will be an unmitigated disaster. We will become the laughing stock of the south coast."

Conservative group deputy leader Councillor Royston Smith also criticised the Liberal Democrats for performing a U-turn.

He said: "Last year's festival was naff and it was tired. At least they have done something. They should not make one policy one week that says they are going to abandon it and then make another policy another week that says they are going to continue it in a different form."

Peter Wirgman, chairman of the Southampton Federation of Residents' Associations, said: "It seems to be a bit of a shambles. They can't really make up their minds what they want."

City leisure bosses said yesterday that they only decided on Friday to stage a horticultural show on the Common.

Last year the two-day event, which can trace its roots back to the Second World War, attracted only 75,000 visitors - half the number of people it has attracted in the past.

Out go the balloons, the vintage cars and giant TV screens, which were a feature of last year's Southampton Festival which attracted just 75,000 visitors, half the number who attended during the balloon and flower festival's heyday in the mid-1990s.

Instead, the show, on June 25 and 26, will concentrate on floral displays and may feature music from local bands.

Councillor Peter Wakeford, City council Cabinet member for tourism and leisure, said the £60,000 allocated from city coffers to pay for the axed Southampton Festival would now be used to support the flower show.

He added that the show would be "totally new" and a high-quality event.

"There was a concern that out of that £60,000 if we did not do something an element of that could be lost.

"The flower element was a positive element of last year's show. We decided to make the flower show element excellent rather than trying to be all things to all people. Over the years, it will build and build."