Agenda item

5.1

Bridget Ingle attended the Committee and asked the following question:

It is nearly 20 years since Sheffield City Council last entered Britain in Bloom. As a competition it inspires community groups to make positive changes to their local environment through horticultural, environmental and community action. It gives everyone involved a structure to work to, from the council to individuals. 

While the proposed volunteer strategy is a step forward, it lacks direction. And that is because there is no overall council strategy. There is no way of evaluating progress for anyone involved. 

I am asking the council to lead by example and consider re-entering the Britain in Bloom competition. It will inspire neighbourhoods, community groups and residents in Sheffield to do the same.

The Chair responded with the following answer:

Sheffield proudly won large city in 2008 but unfortunately since then the budgets we spent on Civic floral colour has been completely lost due to financial savings. Without this the city will struggle to compete in the national awards.  Sheffield obviously isn’t alone on this as the current shortlist for 2023 has very few big cities (see below).

However as part of the volunteering strategy and work already underway with Parks, we are actively encouraging more Friends of Groups to enter Yorkshire in Bloom https://www.yorkshireinbloom.co.uk/. We would also like to bring back the Lord Mayor’s Awards which were hugely successful in encouraging communities to dress their local areas and then work with partners and community groups such as Sheffield BID and Hillsborough Together to see what can be done in around street dressing and floral colour. A key part of the strategy is to create a post so this becomes someone’s responsibility to really enable our communities, identify funding opportunities and can make things just like this happen.

Small City

•        Derry, Derry City and Strabane District Council

•        Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire

•        Oadby and Wigston, Leicestershire

•        Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent

•        Aberdeen Communities Together, Aberdeenshire

•        London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London