VOLUNTEERS in Quarry Bank have celebrated picking up a silver award with their first-ever entry in the prestigious Heart of England in Bloom awards.

Quarry Bank was awarded a silver gong in the urban community category at the awards in Aldridge on September 15.

Joe Payne, vice chairman of Quarry Bank in Bloom, said the win had left volunteers feeling “jubilant”.

He added: "It’s quite rewarding, I’m pleased for the volunteers – they did a lot of hard work and we got glowing comments. We are over the moon about it."

The dedicated team of volunteers have only been working together on their Bloom campaign for the last six months but Mr Payne said everyone's hard had paid off, adding: "We just missed out on a higher award, but we have learned from it and everybody’s keen to go forward and start planning for next year."

Committee member Cedric Welding added: "We’re very pleased. For a first attempt it's very good. We'll be carrying on throughout the winner and next year we'll be going for gold hopefully."

Quarry Bank was given a £5,000 grot spot grant from central government via the community forum to help with its first-ever Bloom efforts and 1st Quarry Bank Scout Group lent a helping hand by staging a last-minute litter pick to spruce up the area.

Going forwards, the Quarry Bank in Bloom team say they'll be staging a series of fundraisers to help raise cash for next year's entry - the first of which will be a Christmas tea in November.

Amblecote also won a silver award in this year's Bloom campaign, while Halesowen picked up another gold gong.

Eight-time gold winning Stourbridge did not enter the awards this year after Dudley Council cut £25,000 from its 'in Bloom' budget across the borough due to financial constraints attributed to a reduction in funding from central government.