Perth is Champion of Champions!

Perth is the Britain in Bloom Champion of Champions 2019! To see our winning Portfolio and videos go to the Our Awards page. 

We are so proud that the dedication and hard work of all our volunteers and partners has been recognised by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) judges, who visited our Fair City at the end of July to see our displays and projects, and meet some of the many people who help us make Perth such a beautiful place to live, work and visit. They were very impressed! At the Britain in Bloom Awards ceremony in London on Friday 25 October, we picked up a Gold Medal and the judges' discretionary Award for Parks and Green Spaces for Riverside Park. Then, in what the judges described as one of the most competitive Championship categories in recent years, our competitors Durham, Castlecaulfield, Kingsbridge and St Helier all won Gold medals too. After a nerve-wracking wait, the announcement came - Perth had come out top, and was crowned 2019 Britain in Bloom Champion of Champions, making our Fair City the best 'blooming' community in the whole of the UK!  RHS Judges Roger Burnett and Jon Wheatley commended Perth's entry, which was led by our Beautiful Perth volunteers working closely with Perth & Kinross Council's Community Greenspace team. They said we ticked every box across the Horticulture, Environment and Community elements of the judging criteria, demonstrating "a fantastic range of high-quality horticulture, environmental initiatives and community engagement on a city-wide scale".

Scotland, and Perth & Kinross (P&K) in particular, did exceptionally well at UK level this year. Our neighbour Bridge of Earn was in the Britain in Bloom finals for the first time, so the volunteers from Brig in Bloom were over the moon when they picked up a Gold Medal, along with the Involving Children and Young People Award and they were the category winner, making Bridge of Earn the UK's best Large Village. Scotland was represented in six of the 13 UK Award categories, winning four Gold medals, two Silver Gilts and four of the categories. As well as Gold medals and category wins for Perth and Bridge of Earn, St Andrews came top in the Small Coastal Communities category and Haddington won Best Town. KIrkaldy won a Silver Gilt Medal in the Small City category, and Dunfermline a Silver Gilt in the Business Districts category. 

Our charity Beautiful Perth is marking its 30th anniversary this year, and we can't think of a better way to celebrate! 

In the photos: Team Perth with our Awards: from left - Bill Ronald (Chair of the Take a Pride in P&K Association), Monica Straughan (Beautiful Perth Treasurer), John Summers OBE (Beautiful Perth Chairman), Jenny Williams (Beautiful Perth Vice Chair), Provost Melloy, Elspeth Bruce (Beautiful Perth Secretary). Second pic: the Champion of Champions trophy

For more information and a full list of winners go to the RHS website. For details of the Scottish successes, go to the Beautiful Scotland website.

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