IN my capacity as chairman of Bournemouth in Bloom I feel I must make further comment to Mr Ken Anderson’s recent letter which was entitled ‘Shame on Poole for denying young gardeners’, which I felt was somewhat hard on Poole council.

It is not just the responsibility of a council to encourage the would be gardeners of tomorrow but parents, teachers and local groups that are involved with any type of horticultural achievement.

Here in Bournemouth, we all work in the team spirit of nurturing and encouraging young people to take pride in the areas which are dedicated to grow flowers and vegetables in the schools. The Bournemouth in Bloom Committee is proud of its excellent working relationship with schools and council. It was my privilege to be at the Schools Award Ceremony, which was hosted in the council chamber by his worship the Mayor of Bournemouth two weeks ago and such an event will be remembered with pride by those children who attended for the rest of their lives.

Bournemouth in Bloom will be actively encouraging more schools to take part next year and this is going to be assisted by our excellent Mayor, Cllr John Adams, who is also going to be visiting all schools in the Borough. So next year hopefully many Poole schools will be taking up the ‘Green Fingers’ challenge and the Mayor of Poole will also host an award ceremony at the Civic centre! Let’s watch this space!

THE REVEREND CHRIS COLLEDGE BCAc 

Chairman Bournemouth in Bloom