The Mayor of Dudley has praised volunteers after notching up another victory in the prestigious In Bloom awards.

The hotly contested national initiative sees groups battling it out to be the most colourful and beautiful places in the country for its use of plants and flowers.

Halesowen In Bloom has been crowned the overall winner at the Heart of England in Bloom awards – and will now go on to represent the region in the national finals next year.

It is the seventh gold award for the borough group in the Urban Community category at the Heart of England In Bloom Awards 2022.

It was also judged the best entry in the whole competition by the Heart of England judging panel with an incredible score of 98 per cent - dropping just two points out of the 100 available.

The volunteers wowed the judges with their floral displays throughout as did Dudley Council for its “excellent standard”.

The group were invited to a special reception with the Mayor of Dudley today. Councillor Sue Greenaway, Mayor of Dudley, said:

“Halesowen in Bloom are a real credit to this borough with volunteers going above and beyond to make this a special place to live and visit. To continue to win awards in this prestigious competition year after year takes a tremendous amount of hard work.

“It was a real pleasure to talk to some of the volunteers about all of their hard work and how they keep shouting about Halesowen at a national level. Well done to everyone involved.

Eve O’Connor, chair of Halesowen in Bloom, added: “We are really proud that we can fly the flag for Halesowen and the borough at a national level.

“There’s so much hard work goes into this competition and we simply couldn’t do it without the help of our incredible volunteers. It was a really pleasure to talk to the Mayor about that and have her support moving forward.”

At this year’s awards, Eve also walked away with the Outstanding Achievement Award for leadership while Halesowen Walled Garden won a special award for improving mental health and wellbeing.

A judging panel for Britain in Bloom will visit Halesowen next summer in 2023 before the national results are announced at a ceremony later on in the year.