THEY’VE helped make the town look bloomin’ lovely and have now been rewarded for it.

Allotments have sprung up throughout the town thanks to the hard work of budding gardeners.

And with 1,700 plots, the judges in the annual Huddersfield Allotment awards had a hard task to pick a winner.

But it’s plotholders at Netherton Moor Road allotments who are celebrating after being awarded the best overall winner for the allotment site with over 25 plots.

Bob Morris, secretary of the allotments who has had a plot there for 10 years, said: “One chap said to me last week that it’s the cheapest health club you could join.

“It’s great to see so many people coming down here, mums and dads with their kids – they’ve brought the place to life and the children love it.

“We’re all very pleased about it, everyone has put a really big effort into it.

“I’d definitely encourage people to have a go in their own gardens if they can.”

Bob said there are 38 plots at Netherton now which are full. There is a waiting list of around 24 and when one of the larger plots comes available, they’re splitting them just to be able to offer more people the opportunity to dig in.

Throughout the town there are 1,700 plots on 100 sites, with only a handful left.

This year’s award for the most improved allotment went to the Rookery at Somerset Road, Almondbury.

Great improvements have been made at the site over the last few years thanks to a team effort.

Steve Ward and his wife Carol were instrumental in helping clear space for an extra 13 plots, and they’ve praised the people who have taken them over saying they’ve done a sterling job in transforming the area.

Steve, secretary of the Rookery, said: “It all started three years ago when we started to clear up an area up at the back of Somerset Road. There were 10 to 12 plots where nothing had been done for 20 years. It was overgrown with trees and we started to clear it, and Kirklees came along with their bulldozers.

“People saw what was happening and started to get involved and its gone from there.

“We’ve cleared space for 12 plots and everyone has worked really hard on it.

“We’ve 30-year-olds to 80-year-olds running plots and grow everything you could imagine.”

The best site with under 25 plots went to Occupation Road in Lindley.

Special praise was made about the Meltham Road Railway site, where five plotholders had worked extra hard to clear the derelict site.

Mrs R Hulme, of the allotment in Plover Road, Lindley, came first in the open class and Mr A Crisp, of allotments in Willwood Avenue, Oakes, came first in the novice class. The individual plots were judged on the variety of crops and quality of planting.

As part of the annual competition, allotment sites were judged on overall impression, variety, quality of produce, cultivation and work to the plots.

The standard of the paths, access ways and special features, from seating to flowers, was also judged.

David Hosley, of Kirklees Streetscene, said: “The efforts and hard work of all the plotholders throughout the district could be seen by the condition of the plots and produce that were judged, despite the changeable weather conditions.

“The continuing interest and uptake of allotments from all sections of the community is very encouraging as the benefits of an allotment are now being realised and this was noticed.

“There is currently an increase in the uptake of allotments, especially for women and young families.

“As a result the parks department have been continuing their work on allotment sites throughout Kirklees, with funding allocated under the three year allotments programme and the benefits of this funding is already being realised.”