BLOOMIN’ RADSTOCK

It’s a great relief to see lockdown finally easing, and if all goes well this summer, we should see the return of the RHS South West in Bloom competition, and they hope to judge Radstock in July in as normal a way as possible. Planning has been underway for some time albeit in a rather different method than we are used to. Instead of meeting once a month and due to the ageing group, many of the committee have been shielding and this has left us with only really the option of telephone calls and emails to one another and most decisions being carried out by an extremely limited number of volunteers and officers.

Radstock has previously enjoyed many RHS Gold awards and reached a RHS Gold standard in the Champion of Champions class in 2014, this was the year prior to Radstock’s regeneration. Whilst we stayed in the RHS competition during building works and disruption, it did us no favours. We have been consistent in achieving Silver Gilt since. So, we are awfully close to the Gold standard. So how are we going to get there? This year our colour scheme will be hot colours. Oranges, Reds and Yellows which will represent the rising phoenix and we are looking to become heavily involved in improvements to our local climate, we hope this year to involve a primary school eco-group, the fabulous Writhlington Orchid project, community groups, allotments, Radstock traders and much more. The town’s coal trucks are looking tired and worse for wear and in need of a lick of paint and spruce up. The lettering representing the coal mines of Radstock needs a revamp and we may finally be able to agree on the spelling of the old pitt truck or is it meant to be just the one t? We will be looking at our local historians from Radstock Museum for the answer to this question. A new planter will adorn Ludlow Court “Plaza” this summer thanks to Councillor Bruce Shearn’s generous ward donation and we hope to bring you some new artwork, possibly a sculpture and a few surprises this summer. If you would like to help us achieve this goal, we are always looking for volunteers for working parties.

We will join the Keep Britain Tidy spring clean which will take place between May 28th - 13th June where we have pledged to cover 15 miles or 300 minutes, we’d like to double that so if you’d like to get involved with this year’s Keep Britain Tidy campaign, please get in touch via email or Facebook all the details can be found on page 26.