A dedicated band of volunteers using floral displays to enhance a Denbighshire town’s historic beauty have received a “blooming huge” boost - thanks to cash confiscated from crooks.

Since it was set up two years ago the pioneering scheme run by Denbigh in Bloom has stylishly filled a series of planters with an array of flowers to brighten up the town centre.

It has also enlisted the support of a small army of green-fingered helpers, including children from local primary schools, tots from a day nursery and residents at a care home, to grow the plants from seed or small plugs, and provided them with the propagators, tools, compost and pots to ensure they have all they need to make things blossom.

While they have a waiting list of groups, schools and Individuals wishing to join in they recently ran out of fresh planters.

But the problem has now been solved after the group was awarded £2,000 from a special fund distributed by North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones.

The Your Community, Your Choice initiative is also supported by the North Wales Police and Community Trust (PACT) which is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2018.

It is the fifth year of the awards scheme and much of over £160,000 handed out to deserving causes in that time has been recovered through the Proceeds of Crime Act, using cash seized from offenders with the rest coming from the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The scheme is aimed at organisations who pledge to run projects to tackle anti-social behaviour and combat crime and disorder in line with the priorities in Commissioner’s Police and Crime Plan.

This year there are 14 grants totalling almost £40,000 given to support schemes by community organisations with an online vote deciding the successful applicants from among 35 projects submitted and almost 10,000 votes cast.

During the Your Community, Your Choice presentation ceremony at North Wales Police headquarters in Colwyn Bay, Denbigh in Bloom chair Lyndsey Tasker said: “We started in the summer of 2016 with just a couple of people who wanted to make the town look a bit brighter.

“We approached the local council to ask them if there was anything we could do to help. They said they were glad of our support but we’d have to do it ourselves – so we did.

“We bought over 20 planters, many of them being sponsored by local businesses, and positioned them around the town centre.

“There’s been lots of involvement, from schools, a day nursery and dementia residents at a care home.

“We believe that by engaging with children when they’re young we can instill in them a sense of pride in their town and in turn this will mean they will be less likely to engage in vandalism in the future.

“We did have some plants being torn up in the first year of the scheme but the local reaction was so strong that I think it scared them off and that’s a good thing.

“We now have over 100 people taking part in the scheme from the wider community and it would have been terrible if we hadn’t had enough planters available for them to fill.

“So the £2,000 from Your Community Your Choice has come as a huge boost to us, especially as all our funding comes though sponsorship, donations and grant applications.”

Twice a year Denbigh in Bloom hosts popular Town Plant up Days in the Town Hall and Lyndsey says the funding will enable the group to purchase additional planters for the events this year.

The cash will also go towards covering the costs of two seasons worth of bedding plants and bulbs, fresh compost, watering costs, insurance and bi-lingual signage.

Denbighshire’s other successful scheme was Llanfwrog Community Association,, which received a grant of £2,500 from Your Community Your Choice to step up security on both of the community centre’s car parks.

This includes the erection of entrance/exit barriers, parking meters and re-instatement of the running surface to Lon Fawr car park.