A BUNCH of green fingered people gathered at Alloa Town Hall last week to receive their prizes for this year’s Clackmannanshire in Bloom competition.

A total of 53 entries were received for this year’s eight categories which included allotments, businesses, council tenants and schools.

Categories were judged on overall appearance and layout of the garden, creative use of plants, standard of cultivation and general garden maintenance by lead judges Mike Joyce from Falkirk Council and Shona Wallace from Stirling Council.

Amongst the prize winners were Muckhart Primary School which won the best overall garden prize while special awards were also be presented to Kevin Laird and Susan Stewart for Best Newcomer and Evelyn Dimmer for Wildlife and Environment.

Provost Tina Murphy, who presented the awards, said, “It is always a pleasure to judge the competition and to present the prizes to individuals who have worked long and hard to make parts of our county even more beautiful. The level of competition was fantastic this year.”