Our green parks, pleasant public places and eye-catching roundabouts are on the shortlist for a prestigious national award.
Newcastle is one of four areas shortlisted to contest this year’s RHS Britain In Bloom ‘small city’ category. Rivals in the competition, to be judged in late July or early August, are Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent, Derry in Northern Ireland and the Borough of Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire.
The Queens Gardens will be planted with annual bedding on the theme of the 850th celebrations, and the entry also takes a sustainable approach by providing herbaceous and perennial planting on town centre roundabouts, including pollinators, and native tree planting as part of the Urban Tree Planting Strategy, including a Lyme Forest incorporating 850 lime trees.
Such has been the council’s consistently high standards, the borough has won Gold in the regional small city category for 20 years in a row, as well as taking a hat-trick of regional championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In recent years it’s also won the national ‘small city’ title and a gold award in the Champion of Champions round.