2008 Beautiful Scotland - Scottish Borders results
The Scottish Borders was proudly displayed to the rest of Scotland at the 2008 Beautiful Scotland competition. 48 cities, towns, villages, urban communities and coastal resorts entered for awards, and 7 of those were Borders towns and villages – meaning the Scottish Borders had above average representation, and came a very impressive fourth in the trophy table.
The Borders representatives came away with the following awards;
Melrose – Reserve Best Village Trophy (i.e. Runner Up)
Melrose – Large Village Trophy
Yetholm – Jim Murdie Trophy for Sustainability
Kelso – Satellite War memorial without Gardens award (awarded by the Royal British Legion Scotland)
Galashiels – Silver Gilt Medium Town
Peebles – Silver Gilt Medium Town
Melrose – Silver Gilt Large Village
Yetholm – Silver Gilt Small Village
Newcastleton – Silver award Small Village
Hawick – Bronze award Large Town
All Towns and Villages have to meet strict criteria to get any kind of award. Four main criteria are looked at;
- floral displays,
- sustainable development and biodiversity initiatives
- environmental quality
- community involvement.
The judges who looked at Yetholm commented; “This new and high aspiring group have placed a lot of emphasis on sustainability, biodiversity and composting keeping the character of the village intact. Their fund-raising and work with the school is commendable”.
The War Memorial in Kelso which won the award is based in the grounds of the High School and is maintained by school pupils. Teachers and pupils at the High School were delighted that the efforts of the pupils have been recognised in this competition. It has been an educational project for the pupils, which everyone can see the results of.
These successes follow on from the Scottish Borders Council awards of the previous week, at Scotland’s Floral Gateway Competition presentation ceremony, which saw 23 Borders communities take part, in four categories.
A great place to start is by entering the Scottish Borders’ own competition, Floral Gateway. The Scottish Borders Council Parks team can also give Borders towns and villages advice on how the council can help support their efforts within these competitions.
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