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Gold was surprise enough, but St. Brelade were also announced as Category Winners at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Britain in Bloom Awards 2016 held in Birmingham on 14th October.
The event was staged at Edgbaston Conference Centre, Warkwickshire County Cricket Ground was attended by over 700 people representing over 70 villages, towns and cities from all over the British Isles, all of whom had been judged during the summer by top RHS judges.
In all more than 1,600 groups participate in Britain in Bloom each year, which focuses on community action to transform spaces and enhancing community environments.
Having been awarded 'Best Coastal Parish 2015' in Parish in Bloom, St. Brelade was entered as finalists into the Small Coastal category in the national competition in 2016. The parish was against 6 others each representing their region; Filey (Yorkshire), Silloth on Solway (Cumbria), Bute (Scotland), Mablethorpe (East Midlands), Tenby (Wales) and Newcastle (Ulster) - all previous Gold medal winners.
The awards were collected by Bloom team members, Mike Jackson and Jeff Hathaway, on behalf of the Parish – and Jersey!
Constable Steve Pallett said:
“We could not hoped for a better result for St. Brelade. The Parish team have worked extremely hard this year and rightly deserve to have been awarded Gold. However it came as a huge surprise to us all when we also announced as Category Winners. To put that into context, it means St. Brelade is officially the best coastal region in the British Isles! It is a huge achievement and I need to publically thank our bloom group, especially ‘team captain’ Jeff Hathaway, who along with Mike Jackson, Jean Charles and Caroline Hathaway spearheaded our entry. But it is all about teamwork and there are many in the parish who contributed to our success including our Parish Foreman and him team too. We thank them all”
“St. Brelade were not the only Jersey award winners either. St Saviour were also entered into this years Britain in Bloom for the first time with their new team and came away with Silver Gilt. A remarkable achievement and a big well done to Constable Sadie Rennard and her team of Nance and David Hicklin, and John and Barbara Hidrio.”
“These awards underline the importance of the RHS Britain in Bloom event and Parish in Bloom to Jersey and therefore a decision was made earlier this year to form an umbrella organization, ‘Natural Jersey’ to take the competition through to future years – and is to launched shortly under the Chairmanship of Mike Stentiford MBE.”
Jeff Hathaway said:
“Our Constable mentions teamwork, but is being a little modest in not adding his own name to the St. Brelade group. His support and encouragement has been immense; and not just a parish level either, but also through his States role at EDD. We are of course proud to have won Gold and to have been announced as Category Winner, but even more proud to have been flying the Jersey flag alongside St. Saviour at this years awards.”
The St. Brelade and St. Saviour teams travelled together to Birmingham to receive the awards – which are announced on the night, and were joined by Dale Hector and his wife from the St. Helier group, who took time out of their UK holiday to travel to Birmingham to provide support and share in the evening.
