An East Midlands town has been awarded a top prize for its impressive floral displays thanks to a local newspaper’s three-year campaign.

The Loughborough Echo, a Trinity Mirror title, started the campaign to spruce the town up this week three years ago, following complaints from readers over grass cutting and old rose beds being removed but not replaced.

The front page at the time read “Loughborough in gloom – Together we can bring back the BLOOM!”

The front page of the Echo in September 2009

Now the town has won a gold medal in the East Midlands in Bloom competition.

Editor Andy Rush said: “We’d been carrying lots of complaint stories and it would have been the easiest thing in the world to splash a banner headline and pose the question to the authorities: ‘What are you going to do about it?’

“But we decided to do something more positive.

“There’d been political fingers of blame pointing this way and that about the lack of flowers in the town, so we just asked for all parties to forget the politics and join with us and the rest of the town in doing something about. And they did.

“We got a Bloom Board together made up of all the key players in the town and haven’t looked back since.”

The first year the newspaper received a special judges’ award for its coverage and the town gained a silver medal.

The following year the town gained silver gilt. Now it has the gold and have been named winner of the small city category.

Added Andy: “To kind of put things in perspective – we now have more than 100 Bloom partners made up of town individuals, businesses, local authorities, the MP, nurseries, residents’ associations, the university and schools…..and this was from nothing.

“This year we have more than 400 hanging baskets in the town – where there were precious few three years ago

“There is also a special Community Participation group made up of ordinary folk in the town who have their own projects.”

Andy praised all of his staff, including Echo reporter Isaac Ashe, who he said had been instrumental in encouraging and supporting groups not used to dealing with the media and local authorities.

He said: “I’m really proud of all the Echo staff, former and present, who have worked hard on the campaign and it shows that local newspapers really can make a difference for the good of their communities.”