Get Northampton blooming! New campaign launches today for 2016

Residents, businesses, schools and community groups are all being encouraged to get growing and take part in the Northampton in Bloom 2016 competition, a locally-organised contest to encourage people to start gardening and make their mark on the environment. The Borough Council and other partners will also be preparing the town to enter the East Midlands in Bloom 2016 contest, where Northampton scooped a Silver-gilt medal last year.

The launch will take place at 11.30am on Monday May 16 at the All Saints Memorial Garden (behind All Saints Church), when representatives from Tesco in Weston Favell, will present a cheque to Councillor Alan Bottwood, Cabinet Member for the Environment, as sponsorship for prizes in the local competition.

The theme for this year’s contest will be ‘Fun in the Garden’ – and two floral cyclists will pop up in the town centre in time for the Aviva Women’s Tour Stage 5 launch on June 19.

‘Remembrance’, marking the continuing commemoration of WW1, is also a continuing theme for the contest and there will also be a nod to the 90th birthday of HM The Queen, as a giant floral crown will spring to life in St Giles Square. The plants will be grown by, and the crown created by students and staff at Moulton College, who are key partners in Northampton’s Bloom scheme.

Last but not least, some of the popular wooden knights, who made such an impact on the streets last summer, will be making a return to the town centre to complement the displays of baskets and planters that will start to appear in June.

Cllr Alan Bottwood said: “Northampton has consistently done well in the East Midlands in Bloom contest and that is a tribute to the hard work of people from lots of different organisations and walks of life right across the Borough. I really enjoy the fact that this contest is as much about bringing people and communities together as it is about making the town greener and more beautiful.

“We were just four marks away from a Gold Medal last year, and so this year, we will be working even harder and pushing further to try to get us to the top.”

The local contest has a wide range of categories including those for school gardens, residential gardens, community projects, commercial and retail premises. More details will be online soon but more information is available by emailing [email protected]