IT is “unlikely” the awards ceremony for the Annual Gardens competition in Oldham will take place this year, organisers have confirmed.

Run by borough housing association First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO) and the council, the Annual Gardens competition has proven popular among the borough’s residents.

One previous winner contacted The Oldham Times and wrote: “Following last year when FCHO still managed to run the annual gardening competition despite changes to staff and the lock down; this year’s competition now seems to have been cancelled.

"This a popular annual competition which has been run by FCHO, (is sponsored by Emmanuel Whittaker and run in conjunction with OMBC,) for as long as I can remember, (and which we've won on several occasions.) The funding has been awarded by Emmanuel Whittaker."

They added:"My feeling is that once FCHO stop holding this competition they will never resume it and it will then be gone for good and that possibly the funding intended to finance it will be quietly reallocated to other projects.”

Kelly Webb, FCHO’s operations director at customer first, has responded to the concerns.

She said: "At the moment, we are considering whether we will be able to host our annual gardening competition in any format this year. It is challenging to make firm decisions at present due to the continually changing coronavirus guidelines. Like all organisations, there needs to be some degree of fluidity in how we are operating so that we can continue to keep both our customers and colleagues safe.

 

“It is unlikely that we will be able to safely hold an awards ceremony this year. This is unfortunate as we know many customers enjoy the evening, however keeping people safe is our first priority. We may be able to acknowledge our customers‘ fantastic gardening efforts in other ways, such as hosting our gardening competition on social media like we did last year. We’ll be communicating this as soon as we have confirmation.

 

“In this instance, the resident has referenced an article published on Emanuel Whittaker’s website referring to their sponsorship of our gardening competition in 2012. We have not accepted sponsorship from Emanuel Whittaker or other partners this year in relation to any gardening competitions.”

 The award ceremony is usually held in the Autumn following entries received over the summer.The last ceremony was held in November 2019. Residents can check the FCHO website and social media channels for updates on the competition.