JUDGES from Keep Scotland Beautiful have returned to Alloa last week following a few gap years.

Volunteers from Alloa in Bloom, which brings together a number of organisations who have been sprucing up the town, welcomed the judges last Wednesday, August 25, to show off their work.

Part of the Beautiful Scotland awards, volunteers have been working hard to put in place floral arrangements and pockets of colour in what is a community environmental improvement programme.

Led by Alloa First business improvement district, the group has been working towards the judging day over the past years.

Also taking part have been volunteers from Scottish Autism's Gartinny Nursery, Play Alloa, Clackmannanshire Third Sector Interface (CTSI), and The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) and Apex Scotland.

It was the first time Alloa First entered the competition to be judged since being voted in again in 2018.

Diane Brown, project manager at Alloa First, told the Advertiser: “This has really been the first year that we've entered the competition to get judged, so it's a real learning curve.”

She and Anthea Coulter from CTSI delivered a presentation for the judges before spending some three hours showing off the best of the town centre.

Alloa in Bloom have put in place some 165 hanging baskets, nine large tiered planters, around 35 barrels, raised planters provided by Clacks Council which used to feature at roundabouts and a wildflower meadow.

Diane said: “There's quite a lot of bloom going on but it also involved a lot of weeding, sweeping up, litter picks – Play Alloa have been really good at doing litter picks each week; and just encouraging everybody to look after the frontage of their business as well.

“We've had lots of compliments about the baskets this year so we do think it's been one of the better years.”

Beautiful Scotland is run in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) under the Britain in Bloom campaign, supporting groups across Scotland as they seek to improve and enhance their areas.

The initiative provides the Scottish entrants to the UK-wide Britain in Bloom competition, where Scotland has been rather successful in recent years.

Diane added: “I think what they were particularly impressed with is all the different community groups that have been involved in the project.

“I think it went relatively well and we'll hear in a couple of weeks what our award is.”

Alloa in Bloom was set up again at the end of last year with start-up funding from the Clackmannanshire and Stirling Health and Social Care Partnership and has been meeting weekly since.

Anyone interested in joining can email alloainbloom@alloafirst.co.uk