THOUSANDS of purple crocuses have sprung into bloom across Otley.

Otley Rotary Club planted 5,000 crocus corms at high profile spots around town last autumn.

The planting was to celebrate the fact that Rotarians have been fighting to eradicate polio across the world for more than 30 years.

Purple is the colour of the dye that is placed on the little finger of children during mass polio immunisation days Rotarians support and fund.

An Otley Rotary Club spokesman said: "As a club we have worked tirelessly to ensure that polio is eradicated for good and with fewer cases being reported we believe we can end this deadly disease forever.

"We must focus our efforts on the final push to eradicate this disease to ensure a polio-free world - we are so close."

Only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria - which suffered a resurgence in 2016, with four cases, after two years of being free of the disease - still have polio.

Mass vaccination programmes have cut the number of cases by more than 99 per cent since 1988, when 125 countries had the disease.