Blooming good news: Market Drayton's gardening competition can go ahead in lockdown, councillors say
A town's residents will be able to show off their gardening done during lockdown as their town council decrees that the annual In Bloom competition will go ahead this year despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Market Drayton Town Council decided at last week's meeting that the popular gardening competition will be able to take place safely within social distancing measures.
Mayor Roy Aldcroft said: "We felt that given the amount of extra time and effort some of our gardeners had spent in their gardens, it deserved some recognition."
Private residences and care homes will all be welcome to participate. Businesses will not be judged this year, as councillors wanted to spare them the stresses of preparing horticultural displays at a time when they will be focusing on making up for months of lost income.
Anyone who would like their garden or planting display to be judged should call the town hall on 01630 653364 and leave their details.
Judging for the competition will be carried out in the final week of July by Cllr Aldcroft and his wife June, plus deputy mayor Cllr Roger Smith and his wife Margaret.
At the same meeting last week in which the competition was discussed, councillors also mused on the popular annual winter events the Festival of Lights and the Christmas Market
Those events will be discussed further at another meeting in late July, when councillors will also decide on providing extra visual displays to illuminate areas of the town which are normally not illuminated at Christmas time.
It is hoped that the events will be able to go ahead with "significant changes" so that they comply with whatever social distancing measures are in place then.
The In Bloom competition is run every year by the town council. Last year's edition had the most entries ever and was hailed as "absolutely brilliant" by frequent judge and then-mayor Cllr Smith.
A number of schoolchildren, firefighters and care home staff who had taken part turned out for the presentation evening, where winners in all manner of categories were rewarded for their efforts.
