LANDSCAPING SERVICES
RHS ANNOUNCES UK
OVERALL WINNER
OF THE PRESTIGIOUS BRITAIN IN BLOOM COMPETITION 2023
Newcastle-under Lyme has been awarded RHS gold and the accolade of Overall Winner in the UK finals of the Royal Horticultural Society ’ s Britain in Bloom competition – the UK ’ s biggest community gardening competition .
44 community gardening groups , who had all impressed their local judges the year before , were nominated to represent their region or nation in the UK Finals 2023 . Newcastle-under-Lyme achieved a gold award in the Small City Category as well as Overall Winner . The 12 category winners ( listed in full below ), from 44 villages , towns and cities , were : Aberdeen ; Better Bankside ; Brandon ; Churchtown ; Darlington ; East Haven ;
Kinnesswood ; Lytham ; Newcastleunder-Lyme ; Oswestry ; Redbourn and St Saviour . Britain in Bloom involves over 3,000 community groups and hundreds of thousands of local volunteers who work yearround to keep their neighbourhoods green and thriving .
Amongst its many gardening initiatives , Newcastle-under-Lyme , in Staffordshire , was recognised for its contribution to helping the town to become carbon neutral through planting a commemorative forest of 850 lime trees as well as other native broadleaf trees . The group also impressed the judges with the innovative and creative ways they worked with local groups , residents and school children to plant trees across the borough – with a ‘ treetotalizer ’ keeping a tally of 9,995 trees planted to date .
Darren Share , Chair of the RHS Britain in Bloom judges , said : “ Newcastle-under-Lyme showed great vision and purpose . Concern for the environment and encouraging wildlife is at the heart of everything they do . We judge groups according to horticulture , environmental and community engagement criteria and the town of Newcastle-under-Lyme scored highly across all three areas ”
In addition to being awarded a gold , silver gilt , silver or bronze medal , groups compete in categories including town , village and Business
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