Record South West in Bloom success for SWT towns
21 October 2022 : Council news, Community, Environment
Somerset West and Taunton (SWT) Council’s principal towns have achieved record success in the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) South West in Bloom competition for 2022.
Taunton received a Silver Gilt in the Tesco Cup for a consecutive year, with Minehead and Wellington building on last year’s Silver medals to gain Silver Gilts in the Sargent and Portman Cups, respectively.
South West in Bloom is one of eighteen regional competitions that make up the RHS’ Britain in Bloom competition, which is the biggest horticultural campaign in Europe.
The aim of the competition is to improve and regenerate local environments and neighbourhoods through imaginative planting of trees, shrubs, flowers and landscaping; conservation and recycling projects; and sweeping away the eyesores that blight streets, such as litter, graffiti and vandalism.
The regional judging takes place every July and is assessed on three core pillars: horticultural achievement, environmental responsibility and community participation.
In response to the results which were announced last Thursday (13 October), Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services, Cllr Andrew Sully, said: “This is a remarkable achievement considering that prior to 2021, neither Taunton nor Wellington had been nominated for several years and in Minehead’s case almost two decades, and yet Silver Gilts have now been awarded across the board in what is the best result we’ve seen to date with Minehead and Wellington levelling up in only twelve months.
“The growing, planting and carrying out of our routine maintenance programmes across the district has continued unabated, but the entire team has worked exceptionally hard to keep our towns, parks and open spaces in tip-top condition, not only for the judging days but throughout the whole season.
“I’d like to thank everyone involved with special mentions going to Blenheim Gardens Volunteers, Minehead BID, Minehead Town Council, Minehead Wombles, Friends of Wellington Park, Transition Town Wellington, Wellington Allotments Association, Wellington Basins, Wellington Town Council and our cleansing contractor, Idverde. Without their help, we wouldn’t have achieved this record result.
“This is another example of how our approach to working collaboratively with partners and stakeholders delivers the best results for our environmental spaces, not just for titles and accreditations – although these are a very welcome bonus, but for the benefit of the communities to which they serve.”
To see the full results, visit South West in Bloom's Presentation Results 2022 webpage.