Madam, Mary, Lyn and I would like to publically thank ART (Association of Ross Traders) for the lovely Community Award we received last week.

It was a wonderful surprise and we are delighted that our retirement from Ross-in-Bloom could be marked in such a way.

It was extra special to learn how much we have been appreciated over the years, although we have never done any of our voluntary work for reward – only for the love of our beautiful town.

We have all worked for Ross-in-Bloom since 1997 – with a combination of nearly 40 years – but all felt it was time a younger more energetic team could take over.

We would like to wish the new volunteers all the luck in the world for the future.

Mary will still be working with the Blake's Garden Project for a while and I will be giving her a hand where I can.

Through this she will also be still working with Herefordshire in Bloom to promote our beautiful town as much as possible.

We will be travelling to Birmingham in September to see how we got on last week with the Heart of England in Bloom Judging and looking forward to bringing back a positive result.

Margaret Lucas,

Retiring Chairman Ross-in-Bloom