Volunteers have decorated Welling town centre with large poppies to mark the start of the annual poppy appeal.

Discover Welling, a community interest company, joined hands with GoodGym Bexley to adorn lamp posts around the area.

The volunteers buy and donate more poppies each year, aiming to eventually cover all 78 lamp posts in the town centre.

This year, the group ensured they extended the display to shops at the far ends of the town centre, after it was pointed out they often miss out.

Discover Welling said: "We are amazed by the amount of interest shown in our poppy display in Welling this year and the number of messages of support."

The initiative, now in its third year, was born from inspiration taken from Enjoy Bexleyheath's annual poppy appeal launch.

Discover Welling reached out to the group for information on where to source the large poppies, and with just a few available, they initially made a small display in the Welling Corner area.

Since then, a volunteer has been purchasing more poppies each year, expanding the display gradually.

The poppies and cable ties are reused annually to avoid waste.

The group said: "Did you know that we have actually been putting poppies up since 2021?

"We were inspired by the wonderful display that Enjoy Bexleyheath does to launch the annual poppy appeal each year, so we asked where they got their large poppies from.

"Each year since, a volunteer has purchased more poppies and we have gradually been able to cover more of Welling."