COMMUNITY gardening groups are celebrating after scooping medals in the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom UK Finals.

Halstead and Colchester were two of the towns chosen to fly the flag for the region following success in the Anglia in Bloom competition the previous year.

The winners of the national contest were announced on Saturday night at an awards ceremony in Llandudno, North Wales.

Halstead was also named Joint Winner of the Town category and awarded a Gold medal. The historic market town was praised for its colour-coordinated floral baskets and containers, Holy Trinity Primary School’s vegetable garden, and the growing areas in Adams Court.

The judges commended Halstead for its “fun and innovative ideas” including transporting the judges along the river to view the town’s blooms in Morris Minors.

Colchester won a silver gilt in the small city category and Pam Schomberg won a Community Champion award.

The towns’ teams joined Britain in Bloom groups from across the UK at the RHS Britain in Bloom awards ceremony, hosted by TV presenter and renowned garden designer James Alexander-Sinclair.

Roger Burnett, chairman of the judging panel, said: “It’s a huge honour to witness how Britain in Bloom brings people together and the lengths that groups go to to make their communities clean, green and beautiful.

“We saw an incredible diversity of different planting schemes, including wildflower meadows for wildlife, community food growing and plants chosen to cope with our changing climate.

“This year, the standard was as high as ever but what really stood out was the creativity and ingenuity that groups showed in tackling the specific challenges of their particular areas, whether that be lack of funding, local social issues or tricky site conditions.”