Two judges from the prestigious Beautiful Scotland competition were in Aberdeen today to decide if it wins in the ‘small city’ category.
Stan da Prato and Andrew Hogarth were visiting all around the city including parks, a school, an allotment, and community areas after starting at the David Welsh Winter Gardens in Duthie Park.
The Beautiful Scotland competition theme for this year was Year of Stories.
The Depute Provost of Aberdeen Steve Delaney said: “It is fantastic to welcome Beautiful Scotland judges back into the city for the first time in three years due to the pandemic.
“I hope the judges enjoyed meeting some of the people who are involved in making our city look green and beautiful.
“The community groups and City Council staff have done a wonderful job of ensuring our parks and green spaces are at their best and contributing towards our beautiful city, so it’s fantastic so many of them have met the judges today.”
This is the first year since 2019 the competition has been held in person due to the covid-19 pandemic.
In 2021, a scaled-back version of the Scottish competition was held with discretionary awards instead of category awards as judges could not go out to places. Aberdeen was awarded a gold medal, The Wright Sustainability Award, and Powis Residents’ Group also won a gold medal.
The major winners in Beautiful Scotland go through to the Britain in Bloom competition. In 2020, Aberdeen was a finalist for Champion of Champions award in Britain in Bloom but the competition was cancelled due to pandemic.
This year, the city will be judged on its horticulture which is our amazing parks and green spaces, community which is all our fantastic green partners and volunteers including Friends groups, schools, businesses, community groups and the thousands of volunteers who help us, and environmental responsibility which is the work carried out for the Council’s climate plan, carbon reduction, and other similar projects.
The winners for the various categories will be announced at an awards event later in the year.
Beautiful Scotland is organised by Keep Scotland Beautiful and more information is available at Beautiful Scotland | Keep Scotland Beautiful