Prizes for Wear Valley’s keen gardeners

Published by Frances Griss for Dale & Valley Homes in Housing and also in Communities, Environment

Keen growers from around Wear Valley have won prizes in the first gardening competition organised by a local group.

Winners and runners up received their prizes at a ceremony at The Manor pub in Bishop Auckland.

The competition was organised by the Wear Valley Customer Panel, a group which represents the views of council tenants in the area, whose homes are managed by Dale & Valley Homes.

Customer Panel chairman Nigel Rowley said: “We wanted to encourage people to make the most of their gardens because a well-kept garden improves the look of an area for all residents.

“Hopefully the success of our winners will inspire other people to spend a bit of time making their gardens colourful and tidy.

“We know the bad weather this summer made things hard for gardeners, which had an impact on the number of entries. Next year we are hoping for better weather so the competition can become an annual event which local people look forward to.”

The overall winner was Eric West who is retired and lives in Coundon. He said: “It’s not a big garden but I am in it all the time. I’ve only just started doing it over the last 18 months or two years. It is important to me because it gives me something to do.”

Mr West also won the Bishop Auckland area prize, while the upper dale prize went to Ken Blakey from Crook.

The runners up were Emma Wealleans, Kathleen Hadden, Tommy Brown, Mr F Hall and Mrs Ada Johnson.

All the winners received trophies and cash prizes.