Special guests Lord Raglan, David Davies MP, Nick Ramsay AM,  Cllr. Susan White, Chairman of Monmouthshire County Council, and Usk Mayor Cllr. Tony Kear, attended this year’s local Usk in Bloom Award ceremony.

Held at the Glen-Yr-Afon Hotel, the event acknowledges the efforts of the gardeners of Usk in maintaining the high standards which give so much pleasure to visitors and has ensured once again that Usk retains the Wales in Bloom title.

Thanking everyone involved for their hard work, Chairman of Usk in Bloom, David Gale, pointed out that there was extra cause to celebrate this year as Usk was given a gold award, for their high score of 173 points out of a possible 200. ‘This is especially noteworthy when the weather throughout this summer was against us,’ he said.

Four judges had a difficult time deciding who should be given bronze, silver and gold awards in each category and who should be given the ‘Best of Class’ awards. Special prizes were also given to the children of Usk Primary school for maintaining the school garden so beautifully and escorting the Wales in Bloom judges around the school plot, to Usk Brownies for maintaining the W.I  display, to Usk Junior Cricket Club and Youth Club for help in tree planting, and to local roadsweeper Robert Hamer for his sterling work in keeping our roadsides and pavements clean. Further prizes were given to children who had won the competition for a container  plant arrangement and for designing posters for Wales in Bloom that were displayed around the town.

The Champion of Champions Award went to Marion Bevan of Lady hill Close for her magnificent front garden. One of the judges said, ‘We spent 20 minutes gazing at this garden to try to find a flaw, but we could not. It was superb.’