The town’s much-loved Melksham in Bloom competition will go ahead this year, organised by a community working group to alleviate pressure on the council.
Judging for the competition will take place on Wednesday 19th July and applications to take part will close on Friday 14th July.
At the town council’s community development meeting on Monday 12th June, Melksham resident and long-term member of Melksham in Bloom, Terri Welch, proposed that she and volunteers form a working group to take on the organisation of the competition, which would involve managing the entrants, applications and judging.
Councillors were in support of this idea, with two councillors joining the working group to represent the council and provide support with the awards ceremony and advertising.
Putting forward the proposal at the meeting, Terri said, “For the last couple of months in the Tourist Information Centre, people are going around town saying, ‘what’s happening with Melksham in Bloom, I am doing my garden and nothing’s happening.’ The Melksham in Bloom, for the last 10 years, has always been followed by the Melksham Open Gardens which is run by the Children’s Society and where everybody can go and visit the gardens if people are prepared to open them and believe me, it’s always a stream of people going to them. I am aware of the problems with the officers and the time, and it’s trying to help this council in some format to have Melksham in Bloom this year.”
Supporting the idea and suggesting the number of categories could be limited to ensure the event is manageable for volunteers, a judge of the competition in previous years, cllr Saffi Rabey said, “I think most of you here know how passionate I am about this, but I would hate for the town to lose Melksham in Bloom because it is such a big deal. People love it, they love entering it. The first year I judged and the gardens were kind of mediocre, to the second year I judged and there was a huge stride forward and it was fantastic to see people embracing it and I would like us to embrace to offer we have in terms of volunteer help to make it happen.
“We have a lot of categories, is there the opportunity of slimming down the categories we’ve got? From a judging point of view there is a lot of places to go and beautiful gardens to see, but I do wonder if we can combine some of them [to save time].”
Terri Welch explained that the awarding of the winners’ awards may need to be reconsidered. She said, “For the awards, this is a bit more difficult. In the past, it’s always coincided with the Gardeners’ Show in September, but to enter into the Gardeners’ Show you pay at the door £2.50 which enables your entry, it funds the cost of the hall for the club and also entitles you to a coffee, tea or piece of cake.
“In the past, people have been coming to collect the Melksham in Bloom prizes and have refused to pay the £2.50. They have then looked around then got to the café and asked for a tea or coffee and when asked where their ticket is they say, ‘I am not paying for that.’ It’s caused all sorts of problems in the past. Nothing elaborate is required. I am aware of the problems with the officers and the time, and it’s trying to help this council in some format to have Melksham in Bloom this year.”
Mayor of Melksham, cllr Simon Crundell said, “I think horticulture is more important now than ever and what we are left to cover is part of the advertising and the awards ceremony. We have got £500 for certificates and trophies; we could either from that, pay their entry into the gardeners’ show, or we could have a slimmer full council meeting where we present [awards] and we get Terry and the team [to attend] and we could dress smartly for it. That’s a way we could do it cheaply and the recognition of an event to do it. It doesn’t seem to be too much left that we would need to do.”
Melksham is a revered town for bloom competitions and previously won gold for four consecutive years in the South West Bloom competition. BBC Two’s Britain in Bloom programme also came to Melksham, where presenter Chris Bavin spotlighted the town’s horticultural efforts.
However, due to dwindling volunteer numbers helping to maintain Melksham’s ‘bloom’ areas, the town did not take part in the South West Bloom competition last year.
Application forms for this year’s Melksham in Bloom event, which councillors voted unanimously in support of going ahead, can be collected from the Tourist Information Centre on Church Street.
