PLANTS had been watered, borders weeded and final touches made for the visit by judges from Anglia in Bloom to Chatteris on Tuesday.

The judges spent the morning inspecting the town which won a gold medal in 2009 and has no intention of winning anything less this year.

Theme for this year is Peace & Tranquillity as organisers wanted to create a cool and tranquil setting for the town during the anticipated hot summer.

The In Bloom group is made up of volunteers divided into various teams responsible for different things such as planting, watering and fundraising.

Judges were shown around many different sites and features by Chairman Sue Elam and treasurer Heather Kinnear.

Included in the route were the Old Bakery, the Bandstand, Emanuel church, the Memorial Gardens, Meeks Cemetery, kingsfield School, Wenny Road Recreation Ground and St Peter and St Pauls Church.

The team works closely with local businesses and judges also saw the floral onion outside of Rustlers and stopped at Westmoor Farm where George Munns farms more than 500 acres. Over the last seven years Mr Munns has undertaken a large amount of conservation work. This year Mr Munns has donated an area of land for the In Bloom Polytunnels.

Judges could also see the completed work on the town’s war memorial  which was carried out when the Royal British Legion gained funding for the memorial to be resurfaced, improving the frontage of the church grounds.

Outside the parish church judges looked at a feature bed created by Fenland District council with a theme of Biodiversity. The parks team has created a woodland wonderland with animals depicting Beatrix Potter characters.

As usual the In Bloom team has been using its milk float to carry out all the watering with water pumped from a well, keeping its carbon footprint as small as possible. The milk float also doubles up as a plant stall once a week at the market where surplus plants raised in the Polytunnels are sold to help raise funds.