Fife communities encouraged to register for Keep Scotland Beautiful awards

The competition, which this year will focus on birds, bees and trees, is run in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).

Its purpose is to bring communities together to help deliver local environmental improvements and recognise the efforts of volunteers across Scotland as they work hard to enhance local areas. Beautiful Scotland celebrates and supports the achievements of entire villages, towns, cities, residential communities and Business Improvement Districts from across Scotland who help to improve the places they care for.

Smaller-scale projects such as community allotments, friends of parks groups, after-school clubs, and community gardens can celebrate too by entering the non-competitive It’s Your Neighbourhood campaign.

A total of 31 groups from Fife entered last year with eight groups receiving Beautiful Scotland gold awards and a further three being awarded outstanding status in the It’s Your Neighbourhood campaign. The groups which picked up gold awards were Beautiful Kilconquhar, Cupar in Bloom, Dunfermline Delivers, Freuchie in Flower, Growing Kirkcaldy, Inverflora, St Andrews BID and St Andrews in Bloom.

Keep Scotland Beautiful is urging communities to come together and take part in the successful initiative which recognises the tireless efforts of volunteers to improve areas in which they live, work and play.

Carolyn Keane from Kinghorn in Bloom said: “We take part in Beautiful Scotland because we enjoy making a positive difference to our environment. It cheers people up and encourages them to start gardening themselves. It’s also a good opportunity to work with all sorts of groups in our community.”

Derek Robertson, chief executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, added: “Beautiful Scotland and It’s Your Neighbourhood give us the opportunity to reward the efforts of the amazing volunteers who work tirelessly year after year to ensure Scotland’s cities, towns, villages and local communities are maintained to excellent standards.

“Communities are doing their bit to keep local spaces in Fife clean, green and beautiful and all too often these efforts are overlooked. Beautiful Scotland and It’s Your Neighbourhood are an annual celebration of the outstanding achievements of thousands of volunteers who enhance the areas they live in, and are an opportunity to put their efforts in the national spotlight.”

The Beautiful Scotland programme has an extensive set of categories and awards, with judging focussed on the core areas of horticultural achievement, environmental responsibility and community participation. A number of category winners can then progress to represent Scotland at UK level in the RHS Britain in Bloom competition.

The It’s Your Neighbourhood programme is non-competitive and gives support, encouragement and national recognition to community groups working under the three core pillars of community participation, environmental responsibility and community participation.

Online registration for the Beautiful Scotland awards and for It’s Your Neighbourhood is now open and further information can be found at www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org