Thousands of visitors flocked to the sun-drenched Shobnall Leisure complex last weekend to take part in the Council’s biggest and best yet Gardening Olympics, which took place on Saturday, June 26th.

Twelve schools from across the borough took part in the vegetable and flower competitions with Eton Park Junior School finally taking the overall winners prize.

The annual event, which is organised by the Council’s Green Spaces team, is a free afternoon out for the whole family to celebrate the fantastic work on healthy lifestyles that goes on in our local schools.

The ‘Floral Hall’ showcased all the displays produced by the pupils at the local schools, including vegetables, flowers and art work all based around the theme of ‘countries’ to tie in with the World Cup.

Entertainment came from musical performances, cookery demonstrations and gardening talks from our special guests – including TV and Radio gardening presenter Steve Brookes who hosted the awards ceremony.

Children also got to enjoy a wide variety of activities from bouncy castles to a human football table and face painting, plus family fun with street theatre and street dance performances.

The Air Cadets were also active on the day and Staffordshire Police sent a helicopter to swoop over the site before landing and allowing children to see inside.

“It was a really successful day, particularly with the wonderful weather we enjoyed,” said Councillor Julia Jessel, Deputy Leader for Built Environment.

“The schools have all worked incredibly hard over the year to grow vegetables and flowers for their displays and picking a winner was extremely difficult for the judges.

“The Gardening Olympics is a great family day out and with this, our third event, it has proven bigger and better than ever. It is easy to see why other Councils are now asking East Staffordshire Borough Council for advice about running similar events themselves.

“We would like to thank everyone who took part and helped make the event so enjoyable.”

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