IT’S all in the laps of the gods after Bradford on Avon hosted South West in Bloom judges last week.

The town will now have to wait to see whether it will retain its silver award from last year or win gold in this year’s competition.

Bradford on Avon has entered the Preece Cup category of the Royal Horticultural Society’s annual competition.

This year, the town chose the theme of the Women’s 100, celebrating 100 years since women were permitted to vote.

The colours used by the Suffragette Movement in 1918 have been reflected in flowers around the town; purple for loyalty and dignity, white for purity and green for hope.

The RHS judges, Martyn Davies and Andy Cole, visited on Thursday, July and were taken straight to St Margaret’s Hall.

There, they watched a short video film presenting all the areas they were not able to visit on the day and to show all the hard work achieved by volunteers throughout the year.

Cllr Simon McNeill-Ritchie and Cllr Emma Franklin then took the judges on a tour to the Tithe Barn, Culver Close, the town’s railway station and the Three Horseshoes public house.

For the ‘In Your Neighbourhood’ categories of the competition, they also visited the new planters at the top of Whitehill and the Sladesbrook/Bancroft allotments.

The morning-long tour ended in the garden of the Wiltshire Heights care home which hugely benefits resident wellbeing.

Cllr Franklin said: “We wanted to show that Bradford on Avon has a vast area of green space with many wonderful people doing their bit to care for it all over the town and not just in the centre.

“Making the town ‘green and clean’ is incredibly important to me. Wherever you live, you want to enjoy your surroundings and you want to feel happy.

“Hopefully, the judges will see this and the medal we receive will highlight this to our residents and visitors alike.”

Throughout the past year, volunteers, council staff, town councillors, social carers and the wider general public have worked tremendously hard to create a healthy, clean, beautiful and increasingly environmentally-friendly town.

Businesses have also given their support for hanging baskets, spruced-up planters and a new market place.

The results will be announced in the autumn.