Gold awards for Broughshane and Ahoghill

Broughshane was crowned Champion of Champions, a title given to communities who have done consistently well in the UK wide-contest over the years.

Meanwhile, Ahoghill is also celebrating a gold medal in the Best Small Town category.

The awards, which are run by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), were presented at a ceremony in Guernsey on Saturday night.

It was the second time Broughshane was selected by the RHS judges as Champion of Champions, having previously won the title in 2007.

Judges said there was a refreshing sense of pride in Broughshane.

One judge said: “The sense of pride in the community is refreshingly evident.”

He added that the award was given in recognition of “25 years of solid hard work and vision” by the villagers.

The chairman of Broughshane village improvement committee, Sandy Wilson, led a nine-strong delegation to the Channel Islands to collect the award.

He said: “We were absolutely thrilled, because we have won Britain in Bloom a number of times - I think 10 times since 1993 - but this is the top award and, because this is our 25th anniversary, it’s a very special year.

“It’s a tribute to all of those people in the village of Broughshane and the surrounding area who help us in all of our community work.”

He said the “very prestigious title” would help to raise the profile of the village, attract more visitors to Broughshane.

Mr Wilson also extended his contratulations to Ahoghill, who won their first ever gold medal in the small town category.

He said the double honour was a “tremendous achievement for the borough of Ballymena.”

If anything, Ahoghill’s rise to floral fame has been even more dramatic than Broughshane’s.

Ahoghill has literally been transformed in recent years in a wholesale community effort.

But controversy struck the area earlier this year after residents and traders spent about £7,500 transforming a government-owned plot of land in Main Street, which had been derelict for years.

The Department of Regional Development’s Roads Service, which owns the site, announced it had plans to clear it and sell it off to a new owner.

The garden was officially opened in August, in the presence of RHS judges. However, at the time a DRD spokesperson confirmed that they still intended to proceed with the sale.

They said they had already warned the residents that the land was to be sold and had “never given any formal approval allowing people to build a community garden on DRD land”.

Speaking on Sunday, James Perry, secretary of Ahoghill Traders Association, said locals were hopeful that the issue would soon been resolved.

He said Ballymena Borough Council was now negotiating with DRD on behalf of the community in the hope the garden could be saved.

Mr Perry paid tribute to everyone in the local community who had worked very hard to improve their town over the years.

“We’re delighted at being crowned the UK’s Best Small Town, after winning the same category in Northern Ireland for five years in a row,” he said.

Mr. Perry also pointed out that, between them, residents and traders spend about £15,000 a year in their attempts to improve their area, without any form of government or lottery grant.

He added that the improvement programme had “100% support” among traders, with every business in the Ahoghill sponsoring flower beds and boxes.