An avid gardener who devotes hours of his time to making his neighbourhood look blooming beautiful is calling for a stewards' inquiry.

Colin Bailey, 72, has been maintaining both his own garden and the community gardens at Adams Court, Halstead, for about eight years and is a regular Halstead in Bloom winner.

In 2011, he also won an Anglia in Bloom award for the best community area in the region.

But one title that continues to elude him is Greenfields’ Gardening Competition and he is upset his efforts have again gone unrewarded this time around.

Gary Elson, Greenfields’ community empowerment manager, said: “We received around 40 entrants for the competition this year, many of which were of a high standard.

“We considered each entry carefully and the judging panel, made entirely of residents, visited all of them to ensure fairness.

“Three out of the nine winners were from the Halstead area."