Crawley's parks impress judges South East In Bloom Awards

Memorial Gardens won the gold award in the Park of the Year category and Worth Park won silver in the Heritage Park category.

Tilgate Park was awarded Silver Guilt in the Large Park category.

Judges, who visited the town in July, said: “Memorial Gardens is a high quality town centre open space with a dedicated teams of gardeners. At the centre of Crawley, the gardens have become an important area with the 100 years anniversary of 1914-1918 war. It was fascinating to see the history which has been researched.

“This continues into Tilgate Park, which is a great asset to Crawley as an attraction to locals and people in the wider area. It has a great diversity of facilities, developed over many years, which provide for all the public needs.

“The walled garden is a great gardening experience, with a wide range of garden areas together with a café and craft shops.”

Cllr Chris Mullins, Cabinet member for Wellbeing, said: “These awards are yet another fantastic achievement for the town. These latest In Bloom awards are a reflection of the hard work, dedication and creativity of our staff and enthusiastic volunteers.

“We’re extremely proud of this triumph, especially considering this was Tilgate Park’s first entry into the awards and Worth Park’s second. Both parks have come a long way in a short space of time and we are working towards gold standard in all our outdoor spaces.”

This latest award adds to the town’s incredible success over the past few years. In the past six years Crawley has won:

Gold at the 2015 South and South East in Bloom Awards (small city)

Gold and category winner (small city) at the 2014 South and South East in Bloom Awards

Gold at the 2013 South and South East in Bloom Awards (small city)

Gold at the 2012 South and South East in Bloom Awards (small city)

The 2011 South and South East in Bloom Champion of Champions Award, achieving High Gold standard

Silver Gilt and category winner (large town/small city) accolades at the 2010 Britain in Bloom Awards

The Britain in Bloom 2010 Community Award for Let’s FACE it!

Gold and category winner prizes (large town/small city) at the 2010 South and South East in Bloom Awards

Gold and category winner prizes (town centre and large town/small city) at the 2009 South and South East in Bloom Awards.

In addition to the town’s award, community groups were again successful in the It’s Your Neighbourhood Awards with residents in Boswell Road and the 7th Crawley Beavers receiving ‘outstanding awards’.