Judging information

The Yorkshire in Bloom judging criteria for 2007 is contained in the following documents which are available for entrants and judges to download:

Judging Sheets:

Small Village (Category 1A)

Village and Large Village (Categories 1B/1C)

Urban Communities, Towns and Cities, (Categories 2A/2B/2C/2D/3/4)

Coastal Resort (Category 5)

Public and Private Establishments, Sir Richard Graham Youth Award & Places of Further Education (Categories 6/11/12)

Public House & Restaurants, Guest Houses, Holiday Cottages & Small Hotels – (7A, 7B)

Large Hotels – (7C)

Visitor Attractions, Business Premises, Shopping Centres & Retail Parks, Caravan, Camping & Chalet Parks, Country Houses, Estates, Parks & Gardens - (8A/8B/8C/8D/8E)

Ben Bailey Homes New Housing Awards (Categories 9A/9B)

Neighbourhoods (Category 10)

NEIGHBOURHOOD AWARDS

As the neighbourhood Awards pilot scheme takes off across the country, more communities are seeing the benefits of getting involved. The pilot was tried in Wales in 2003 and this year it is being tested in the North West, Yorkshire and London. It is hoped that all nations/regions will introduce Neighbourhood Awards over the next 2 years.

This exciting new category in the Yorkshire in Bloom collection was piloted this year and judged in the warm days of early September. It is the opportunity to showcase the potential of the often-inspiring work being done by local people to transform their environments.

The spin-off from co-operative effort in a local community is both tangible and unquantifiable:

Does this sound like the benefits of your participation in our existing categories? Of course it does! And the excitement of this new category comes from the neighbourhoods themselves where the challenges are huge and the overcoming of their problems need more than average grit, determination and the ability to bring dreams to reality.

The Judges have seen an appalling fly-tip turned into a lovely railinged garden where children can play in safety having helped to plant and create the space, a flower-filled, lovingly tended garden created on a former no-go area which is now the focal point of an estate where people’s lives have been changed beyond their wildest dreams by the experience gained in its creation.

These are the realisation of individual dreams of a better quality of life for their neighbourhoods, achieved in partnerships of many kinds. And the beauty of this category within Yorkshire in Bloom is that no one is competing with anyone else for recognition. Each entry is assessed against the Britain in Bloom criteria and each receives a certificate recognising the stage that has been reached. So that even a project just starting out where improvement is apparent will be awarded a Certificate of Improvement. The next stage up gets a Merit and where a high achievement is reached in a project then Outstanding is awarded.

Communities that register are in one of three categories

The hope is that many more such local community projects will be forthcoming. The catalyst can be so simple: one householder deciding to put out a planter or window box, one group of neighbours beginning to keep their own street clear of litter and graffiti: one gardener making an impact in a row of plots. From small acorns.....!

For more details about this category contact the YIB Administrator - 01909 779730 or for a useful information pack contact Royal Horticultural Society 80 Vincent Square, London, SW1P 2PE or log on to www.rhs.org.uk/britaininbloom

The criteria for the Neighbourhood awards can be found in the following document.

Neighbourhood Awards

(These document are pdf files (Portable Document Format) and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader® to download them. If you do not have it installed on your computer, please click the link below for a free download.)