AT long last!!A month after the Evening Star highlighted Felixstowe's dreadful weed-infested gardens and clifftops – and just days before the Anglia in Bloom judges arrive – the gardeners have at last dealt with the problem.

AT long last!!

A month after the Evening Star highlighted Felixstowe's dreadful weed-infested gardens and clifftops – and just days before the Anglia in Bloom judges arrive – the gardeners have at last dealt with the problem.

The weeds, some of them four feet high, had been a disgrace to a seaside town which prides itself on being the Garden Resort of East Anglia.

And for councillors and council officials to have turned a blind eye to them and pretend everything was OK, when they only had to visit the areas concerned or look at Star photographer Simon Parker's photos, was bizarre.

But now the thistles, weeds and the ripening wheat which had been growing in the clifftop gardens in Hamilton Gardens have now been cleared – and the area is again looking spic and span.

It was just as well, too, as the Evening Star was set to send its Felixstowe reporting team, Joanne Constable and Richard Cornwell, to do the job.

But the pair had no need to weed after Suffolk Coastal council gardeners did an excellent job, pulling the unwanted plants, and using industrial strimmers to trim the overgrown areas on the clifftop and the paths leading down from Cambridge Road.

People can now walk unhindered and use the seats in the area and enjoy the sea views without being faced with an unsightly mess.

There are some terraced areas down the path below the small shelter which are still ridden with nettles and long and dead grass, but hopefully these will be dealt with this week.

It had been hoped that all these areas would have been done a month ago ready for the golden jubilee celebrations to ensure the town was looking its best as an advertisement to potential holidaymakers.

Gardeners have also been working hard on all the other beds and borders, as well as the lawns, in the town in readiness for the first round of judging this week for the floral competitions.

Anglia in Bloom judges were due to visit the town today to assess the town, last year the best town in the region and the winner of the Premier Trophy.

They will be taken on a route around the resort to see the Felixstowe in Flower hanging baskets and tubs, civic gardens created by Suffolk Coastal and the county council, and award-winning private gardens, allotments and traders.

This year's main attraction is a three-D floral octopus, designed by gardens chief Eddie Peters, and constructed by Suffolk Coastal gardeners outside the resort's seafront leisure centre.

Next month the Britain in Bloom judges will visit to assess the town for the national competition.