Wellington was a winner in this year’s South West in Bloom competition, scooping a silver award in the Portman Cup.

The awards were presented to representatives from Somerset West and Taunton’s Street Scene and Open Spaces team in a ceremony held at the Winter Gardens Pavilion, Weston-super-Mare last month.

Wellington has competed previously but had not been nominated for several years.

South West in Bloom is one of 18 regional competitions that make up the RHS’ Britain in Bloom competition, the biggest horticultural campaign in Europe.

It aims 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.

Regional judging takes place every July and is assessed on horticultural achievement, environmental responsibility and community participation.

Taunton won a silver guilt award in the Tesco Cup and Minehead a silver award in the Sargent Cup.

Darren Hill, operational lead for Street Scene and Open Spaces, said: “Despite a difficult year, balancing the after-effects of Covid and an unforgiving and relentless growing season, the entire team has worked exceptionally hard to ensure all our parks and open spaces were kept clean, tidy and well maintained, not only for judging day but throughout the whole season.

“Not only have they been fantastic in achieving this, but there’s been a great demonstration of collaborative working between our volunteers, friends’ groups, Minehead BID and town councils across all the entries.”

He congratulated everyone involved for achieving ‘such a great result during what has been logistically, one of the most difficult years ever!’

Cllr Andrew Sully, portfolio holder for Environmental Services, said: “I wish to extend my thanks to everyone for their hard work throughout the year and for supporting Minehead, Taunton and Wellington in this year’s In Bloom awards. It was an absolute privilege to show off our fantastic towns, all of which looked their very best on the judging days.

“These are fantastic results and certainly well deserved. Our staff, contractor and especially the volunteers and friends’ groups have put in time and energy over the past, very testing year, and it gives us a tremendous boost to be jointly recognised for appreciating our green spaces.

“Over the past year, we’ve seen just how important our parks and green open spaces are to the wellbeing of our communities. Horticulture is only a small part of South West in Bloom – community involvement plays an important role and it’s thanks to the support and involvement of Minehead BID and our volunteers and friends’ groups that we’ve managed to achieve success in these awards.”