The HTA have been invited by a government department to a meeting to discuss Easter Sunday trading, the ban on which is one of the garden industry’s longest-standing grievances.

The meeting, which will be convened after the General Election, is being interpreted as the most hopeful sign yet that the government may at last be willing to discuss lifting the ban, which was imposed in 1994 when the Sunday Trading Act allowed smaller shops in England and Wales to open all day and larger ones, including most garden centres, for six hours between 10am and 6pm.

The retail-free Easter Sunday was a concession to the Act’s opponents, who included religious groups and trade unions.

Raoul Curtis-Machin, the HTA’s head of horticulture, told GTN Xtra that, following lobbying earlier in the year, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) had requested a meeting to discuss the issue. “This wasn’t us asking for a meeting, it was them saying they would like to have a chat about it,” he said. The topic is also on the agenda for this year’s planned round table meetings with Defra. “We have an action plan – this is on the list,” he added.

Curtis-Machin says the developments were a sign that the “door is open” for a possible solution, one he believes would be welcomed as much by the public as well as the garden industry. “Things have changed,” he added. “It’s a question of people not wanting politicians to tell us what to do with our Sundays.”

He cautioned against over-optimism at this stage, in the light of ongoing delaying tactics from a “hard core” of resistance by those who want to retain the status quo. “But we detect there is a will amongst the politicians to go for change. It’s looking more positive.”