Civic society of Great Yarmouth makes awards to shops, businesses, market traders as well as some special awards

A team of five pairs of judges assessed nearly 500 premises from the north end of Northgate Street to the south end of King Street and from the river to Alexandra Road.  The judges gave marks for the state of the doors and windows, the window display and lack of clutter on the windows and the cleanliness of the area in front of the property down to and including the gutter.   As a result of the judging the 77 with the best marks were revisited by all the judges and remarked.  The 26 with the highest marks became our finalists in five categories and were invited to the Ceremony in the Town Hall.

The winners in each category are as follows:

• RETAIL: WARREN JAMES, Jeweller in Market Gates
• SERVICES:(Banks, Estate Agents, Building Societies etc.) LARKES ESTATE AGENT in Hall Quay
• PERSONAL SERVICES: (Hairdressers, Nail bars, tattooists etc.) MORFOSE TURKISH BARBER in King Street
• FOOD AND DRINK: THE COURTYARD in Row 75, Poppies Row
• MARKET STALLS: JACK'S FLOWER STALL

Each winner was presented with a framed certificate and the overall winner, Warren James, was awarded a trophy which will be retained for a year.

The prize for the best front garden or patio was awarded to Sally Bondi of 22 Church Plain. (Photo)

A special award was made to the WATERWAYS and BOATING LAKE which were constructed  nearly one hundred years ago and were refashioned two years ago.  The second special award was made for the newly built Marina on the Seafront and was presented to Carl Smith, Leader of the Council, who had been one of the main protagonists of the scheme.

We were delighted to learn that Ann Hacon and Angela Powley, two very active gardening members of the Society had been awarded the Great Yarmouth in Bloom Gold Medal for the Community Project which involved creating gardens around the Blackfriars section of the Town Wall and the Silver Gilt medal for the Courtyard they maintain at the Yare Gallery.  Both are very well deserved.

The Society is very grateful to the sponsors who made this project possible: Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Town Centre Partnership, Ian McCreadie of SPP Digital, Bruce Sturrock, Ajay Kumar and Hugh Sturzaker.   We are also grateful to the hard work of the judges.

We were honoured to have the Mayor present who gave a short address congratulating the winners and stressing the importance of having well maintained shop fronts which helps the local economy.