Leamington Mayor Cllr Judith Clarke Leamington in Bloom celebration speech

Transcript

00:00Thank you all for coming, and especially those people who have restaurants and pubs,

00:06taking time out of your busy schedules, thank you so much for coming.

00:14We're here to celebrate the work of the Levington in Bloom group, volunteers who work hard during

00:21the year on various blooming initiatives that some of you may not actually be aware of.

00:27During 2024, the group has organised the beautiful Geranium and Herb trains

00:34that you may have seen whilst visiting Jefferson Gardens,

00:39and the train station, the annual photographic competition, the Town's Entry into the Heart of

00:45England in Bloom competition, which I went to and I was very, very proud to be representing Levington

00:53on that occasion, the photographic installation in the art box at the top of Clarendon Avenue,

01:00which you haven't, it's a telephone box, if you haven't been it's quite interesting,

01:06and the beautiful Levington in Bloom calendar. The Town was delighted and proud to receive a

01:12gold medal for the seventh consecutive year in the Heart of England in Bloom competition,

01:18and I thank the gardening groups that helped to make this possible. As I say, that was a very

01:24interesting day and we were competing against towns from all over the Midlands, so to get a

01:32gold medal was a really excellent thing to get. So the people who helped to make this possible,

01:44to get this gold award are the Friends of the Railway Station, St Paul's Primary School,

01:53representatives from the Holt Recreation Ground, the Paintings Plantation, James Hirons Care Home,

02:00and of course the famous Warwick District Council Green Space City, led by John Holmes.

02:07They design and maintain the jewel in Levington's crown, Jefferson Gardens, which I think all

02:14visitors are absolutely awe-inspired when they come and visit. Another very popular initiative

02:21is the pub, shops, restaurants and other commercial premises competition. It isn't

02:27strictly a competition as none of the premises are aware of it. The in-bloom spies walk the

02:36town street awarding gold, silver and bronze standards for the most attractive frontages.

02:43Shortly I will be presenting certificates of those who could join us today.

02:48I'm also delighted to congratulate the first, second and third prize winners in the photographic

02:54competition. This year's theme was Sanctuary, a quiet place of calm. The pictures were

03:04astonishingly beautiful and of a very high quality. You can see them in the calendars on the tables.

03:12Last but by no means least, I'm very happy to welcome Philon Bolivar from Levington Courier

03:19and Marcus Mingans from the Levington Observer, who hopefully will get some good pictures of us.

03:26I'll now move on to presenting the certificates. Please continue to help yourselves

03:32with coffee and cake.