CENTRAL Fife gardeners and community volunteers have been celebrated at award ceremonies to thank them for their marvellous efforts in keeping Fife looking beautiful!

And while there were ups and downs for the community environmental groups each one was a success story.

And for Crossgates' Green Fingers Group they achieved gold status.

First up was a celebration of Beautiful Fife Gardens and the hard work and dedication local residents put into their own gardens.

Depute Provost, Cllr Kay Morrison presented the awards and the overall category winners were:

Flower (Formal) - Anita & Michael Adams - Freuchie.

Flower (Landscaped) – Alexander Boyek - Auchtermuchty. Mixed (Flower/Vegetable/Container) – Donald Ellis - Springfield. Vegetable - Jim Thomson - Dalgety Bay Hanging Basket/Container – Stuart Welch - Ceres.

Local results were Area 2 - Kelty, Cowdenbeath, Hill of Beath & Crossgates, Silver Gilt - Donald Meiklem - Kelty; Silver - Ann Somerville - Cowdenbeath.

Area 1 Ballingry, Lochore, Crosshill, Glencraig, Lochgelly & Lumphinnans, Gold- Thomas Murphy - Lochgelly.

Area 2 - Kelty, Cowdenbeath, Hill of Beath & Crossgates Vegetables Bronze - Kelty Haven, Kelty Allotments - Peter Sinclair & David Johnstone - On behalf of West Fife Outreach Team Occupational Therapy.

Hanging Basket/Container Area 2 - Kelty, Cowdenbeath, Hill of Beath & Crossgates Gold - George Henderson - Kelty.

And then on the Thursday evening local communities gathered at an awards ceremony to be honoured in the Beautiful Fife Towns celebration.

The communities were judged earlier this summer and were assessed on horticultural achievement, environmental responsibility and community involvement. The overall category winners for 2016 were: Wee Village - Kilconquhar

Small Village - Coaltown of Wemyss

Large Village - Ceres

Coastal Village - Kinghorn

Coastal Town - St Andrews

Small Town - Inverkeithing

Medium Town - Cupar

Large Town - Kirkcaldy.

Keith Jackson, Parks & Community Events Officer commented: “Fife boasts many talented gardeners and, as ever, the standard from entrants this year was very high. Congratulations to all the winners for their enthusiasm, imagination and skill!

“The efforts of the volunteers across Fife’s communities are also astounding and those that live, work and visit cannot fail to be impressed. The attractive flowers, containers and baskets are the visible side of this work but the towns and villages are also assessed on their environmental responsibility and their community involvement.

“Fife communities are well represented at a national level and these communities will now find out what they achieved at the Beautiful Scotland Awards in Aberdeen next Wednesday (14th).”

Local communities' awards were, Benarty Silver; Cardenden Silver; Cowdenbeath Silver; Crossgates

Gold; Kelty Silver; Lochgelly Bronze.