The city centre will be without 120 hanging flower baskets after a grant application by Keep Dunedin Beautiful for $24,000 was denied.
The baskets, which are hung in George, Princes and Stuart Sts from December to March, have previously been funded by a Dunedin City Council grant.
But the baskets have failed to meet criteria for the council's new grants process, which is heavily oversubscribed.
''We are disappointed that a project that gave so much pleasure to so many people will not go ahead this year but we understand the need for budget constraints,'' the organisation's co-ordinator, Darlene Thomson, said.
A letter outlining exactly why the grant was denied was ''coming soon'', but Mrs Thomson said the group had been given a verbal explanation.
''We were told that they [DCC] would like to gauge public support for the baskets project.
''We have done this in the past and it has always been in favour of the baskets.''
Grants subcommittee chairwoman Cr Jinty MacTavish said the old system for applying for funding from the council was ''haphazard'' and the new formal application process put some structure to it.
''This year was the first `city service and project fund' round. It was massively over-subscribed.''
Thirty-five applications had sought a total of $902,000 from a DCC funds pool of $531,770.
As a result, Keep Dunedin Beautiful's application for the hanging baskets did not meet the criteria, Cr MacTavish said.
''I think the subcommittee's decision is a really sound one.''
The flower arrangements and maintenance is completed annually by Blueskin Nurseries.
Company spokesman Mark Brown said it was ''a shame'' but he could understand the decision.
''It's just another council contract that's been cut ... but it's not the end of the world, is it?''The baskets would be given to the Caversham Community Group.
Keep Dunedin Beautiful was granted $6000 for murals.
