The accolades for Congleton continued last week when the town scooped its 8th consecutive gold large town award at the North West in Bloom ceremony and was crowned group winner and overall champion at the Cheshire Community Pride Awards. This is just two weeks after Congleton achieved a gold award at the National Britain in Bloom finals in Belfast. 
Ten members of the In Bloom team attended the North West in Bloom awards in Southport on Friday 2nd November. Congleton has performed consistently well in this competition achieving gold standard every year since 2011 and winning the group in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017. This year Wilmslow were crowned the group winners. Two local businesses, Astbury Mere Care Home and Alexandra Court Hotel, also attended the award ceremony and both achieved gold standards in their competitions.
Success was also forthcoming in the Cheshire Community Pride awards held in Frodsham on Thursday 1st November. Unlike the In Bloom judging, the Cheshire Community Pride judging is unannounced and unaccompanied with the judges visiting the town several times between April and September. Congleton received an outstanding 92% in the judging with the town scoring full marks of 30/30 on 12 of the 27 categories! Only one category – public toilets – was below the ‘good’ standard.
The Cheshire Community Pride Competition is run by the Cheshire Community Action and is open to all towns and villages in Cheshire East, Chester and Cheshire West, Halton and Warrington. Congleton received two plaques one for Best Kept Village (10,001 – 30,000 population) and one for overall champion for 2018. The town was also given an original water colour of the Town Hall by Cheshire Life illustrator Gordon Wilkinson.
Cllr David Brown, Chairman of the Congleton in Bloom group, attended both of the ceremonies. He said: “it is great to see Congleton getting such fantastic recognition at local, regional and national level. These awards are for the whole town. I would like to thank everyone who played their part in making Congleton greener and cleaner this year – it’s a massive town-wide effort.”
Congleton in Bloom will be hosting a celebration and thank you event in the Town Hall on Tuesday 13th November from 6-7pm. At this ceremony further awards achieved by the nine It’s Your Neighbourhoods will be announced.
