A florist feels hard done by for losing out on a council improvement grant because her shop is on the wrong side of the bridge.

Sarah Cousins, who owns All About Flowers in Victoria Road, Ruislip Manor, feels she has been overlooked by Hillingdon Council who have provided shop front grants to a certain number of shops but she is positioned a few metres too far to be eligible.

Grants have gone to traders with shops running from the railway bridge to the Cornwall Road roundabout in Ruislip Manor, but not to shops running in the opposite direction on the other side of the railway bridge, towards Windmill Hill.

The 29-year-old, who lives in Bideford Road, Ruislip Manor, said the shop has been successfully trading for 25 years, and feels that there should be better criteria for who is eligible than simply the shop’s physical location in the high street.

She said: “They have invited people to take on a lease down the other end of the high street and they will get a grant if they move.

“I know there are empty shops there that [the council] wants to fill but new businesses are coming in, getting a grant and within a year will be gone.

“I know that they might only have a bit of money but it’s common sense to have some sort of criteria to decide who gets the grants or not – not just because of which side of the bridge they happen to be,” Mrs Cousins said.

Councillor Douglas Mills, cabinet member for community, Commerce and Regeneration said: “We believe that focusing on shops between Ruislip Manor Station and the Cornwall Road roundabout was the best way to do this.

“However when we finish the current area, we will review our funds and if we have money left over, I will be considering extending the area for the shop front scheme, as I have already explained to our shopkeepers.”