KINGSBRIDGE In Bloom chairman Graham Price has thanked his team of volunteers for their ‘great success’ this year.

In his end of year message, Graham said: ‘This is just a personal thank you and update to our great team of volunteers and many supporters who have helped us achieve great success again this year. ‘We could not have done this without your support and dedication to keeping our town attractive and vibrant.

‘I have to admit that it has not been easy to keep up the gold standard, particularly when dealing with our local councils who seem to be operating with less resource and don’t always see Kingsbridge as a priority area when they operate from Tavistock or Totnes and in some cases even further afield.

‘On the positive side we have a very supportive Town Council, business community and other local groups who understand what a significant contribution KIB has made to this town and we should all be feel very proud of this.

‘The other good news is that our new committee are well advanced in sorting our display requirements out for 2017 which will be our 10th year since we started. There are some great new ideas which I am confident will certainly give the town that extra ‘wow’ factor in this special year for us.’

Graham and the team are looking forward to the construction of the new composting facility, which will be completed shortly, and work to pollard - shape - the trees in the Town Square will start next week.

They have also had assurances that ‘weed control and grass cutting’ will be ‘managed properly next year’, which will reduce the pressure on KIB in the run up to judging.

Regional judging for the South West In Bloom will take place between July 5 and July 19, In Your Neighbourhood areas will be judged between July 3 and July 31, and the National judging will take place between August 7 and August 18.

The Pride in the Park award will be judged between June and December 2017 and the awards presentation will take place at the Palace Hotel, Torquay, as will the Spring Seminar on March 2.

The Royal Horticultural Society’s Schools Painting Competition is themed ‘My Favourite Season’ next year and Graham is hoping for a good response from local schools.

‘Finally’, Graham added, ‘May I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year “tinted with gold”.’