A blooming good launch

Oldham Mayor Councillor Jim McArdle with festival supporters, including (front row, from left) Lee Gannon (chargehand Britain in Bloom team); Myra Wyers (Link Centre); Anna Morell (Groundwork volunteer) and Jan Robinson (festival development officer)

OLDHAM Festival of Diversity has launched its summer programme in partnership with the borough’s Bloom and Grow initiative.

The Mayor, Councillor Jim McArdle, showed off the glossy brochure — which contains information about the month-long events which run from July 12 to August 8 — in Alexandra Park, Oldham.

Members of the Link Centre art group and festival volunteers also helped the mayor to plant flowers as part of Bloom and Grow and in preparation for one of the events, entitled “We Made the Garden Party”, to be held on Saturday, August 8.

Bloom and Grow is the borough’s entry for the North-West in Bloom competition.

North-West in Bloom judges are to visit Oldham later this month and will judge the borough against five criteria: floral displays, landscaping, conservation and recycling, local environmental quality and public awareness.

A central part of Bloom and Grow will focus on the imaginative seasonal planting of flowers, shrubs and trees along the judging route, which takes in the town centre before heading along Waterloo Street, through Glodwick to Alexandra Park, and into the New Deal for Communities area around Ashton Road, Hathershaw.

A key part of this year’s entry is the participation of Oldham residents of all ages and cultures.