THE Services Cotswold Centre in Neston, which provides temporary accommodation for TriServices personnel, has been nationally recognised for its gardens and how they help soldiers transition back into civilian life.

Horticulturalist Alan Yandell and the gardening team were crowned as joint Inspiration Street winners in David Domoney’s ITV series Love your Garden competition which aimed to promote the stories of community spirit and success.

The centre is used to help families in transit, and personnel who have been injured or are about to leave the TriServices with many staying for up to a year to make the transition.

Mr Yandell, who has worked in the gardens since 2007, said: “When I first applied for the Love Your Garden competition I thought we wouldn’t be accepted because the categories didn’t include us but after four weeks I had a phone call to say that after the first application they didn’t hear anything from us and then we sent in some photos.

“It was a bit of a whirlwind after that because we received a shortlist which we weren’t on but after a week, we had a letter to say they loved the gardens and we were joint winners of the Inspiration Street and we had won £500 of garden centre vouchers.”

The gardens have previously won Corsham in Bloom a number of times and the centre benefits Tri Services personnel, often acting as a stepping stone for them to get back to civilian life.

Mr Yandell added: “We are quite chuffed here with the award and I didn’t expect us to win. I am really pleased and the MOD staff are quite happy too and we can put the money towards buying extra plants that we need.

“We get a lot of people who are in the services and some in transit. They might be here a week or two and there are others who have been injured but they come to rest for a while and move on. A lot of the people here are with families but it is the idea of the place which aims to get people here back to civilian life because after being in the army for so long, you get into a certain frame of mind and I hope at least these gardens will help people relax.”

Winners of the six categories were chosen from hundreds of entries from all over Britain and judges included figures from Kew Gardens, HRH The Princes Foundation, the Director General of the HTA, the President of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture, Editor-in-Chief of The Sunday Mirror and Sunday People.

The Cotswold Centre has been awarded £500 in garden centre vouchers.