Bring on the world

3:47pm Monday 14th April 2008

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A VILLAGE has scored a horticultural hat trick at the Britain in Bloom awards after it scooped a surprise crown for the North West's cleanest village.

And now happy Heyshamers are keeping their fingers crossed as they look to conquer the world in a Canadian competition this weekend.

The village fought off 200 entries to win the Clean Sweep award - which came as an absolute surprise to the Heysham in Bloom team that was at the ceremony in Blackpool's Hilton Hotel to collect a separate award.

"We went to pick up the prize for the Royal Horticultural Society's Best Small Village in Bloom North West," says Heysham in Bloom chairman Angela Sykes.

"We were not expecting another award at all, not least the notoriously hard to win Clean Sweep prize. We were absolutely amazed."

The judges praised Heysham's cleanliness saying the village was scrupulously spotless with not even a cigarette butt in sight.

advertisementAngela says: "The judges said they couldn't find a spot of rubbish anywhere when they came to visit in July. It is hard to believe because we get so many tourists in the summer - but it is thanks to the many residents who are dedicated to keeping the village clean."

And there may be more celebrations to come, as the results of the Canadian International Challenge will be announced on Sunday.

The international competition has been launched to find the best Community in Bloom 2006 and Canadian judges spent two days in Heysham in July.

"We are all very excited about the Canadian challenge and we will be staying up until the early hours of the morning to hear the result from Canada," says Angela.