Communities across Oxfordshire have come up trumps in the regional finals of this year's Britain in Bloom competition.

The village of East Hagbourne, near Didcot, will go forward to the national finals after winning a gold award for the second year running in the large village category.

The village received the highest mark ever achieved in the regional awards.

Hagbourne Primary School also did extremely well and won the Mark Mattock Schools Challenge Cup for its gardens.

Monica Lawson, chairman of East Hagbourne Parish Council, said: "This brilliant achievement was possible only because so many people take pride in their village and pulled together to put on a tremendous show.

"The icing on the cake is Thames and Chilterns in Bloom is allowed only one entry to go forward to the national finals next year in 2009, and the judges have selected East Hagbourne to take that place."

Elsewhere in the county, Abingdon's spectacular floral displays won the town a silver accolade in the competition.

Judges were particularly impressed with the gardens and hanging basket displays in the town and Abingdon Business Park, and awarded it the silver prize in the large town awards.

The panel said the town had done well in recovering from the storms that forced it to withdraw from last year's competition.

Albert Park also won the accolade for the best private park, with judges impressed that the area is just one of two parks in the country to be run by a charity.

Lesley Legge, leader of Abingdon Town Council, said: "We are really delighted, having had to drop out last year we were sort of starting again.

"We did better than expected and we are really glad."

Henley just missed out on a gold award and instead scooped silver for its formal gardens and floral displays.

The town was jointly awarded, with Olney, the title of Best Community Involvement.

Banbury narrowly missed out on gold but received silver gilt for its Banbury Cross and Peoples' Park.

The cross also won an award in the best floral input category.

Witney won a bronze award for its schools challenge and the River Windrush Project, which also won the title of best conservation and environment project.

The town's Wood Green School was also awarded a highly commended certificate for its contribution to the competition.

For the second year running, Woodstock won a gold medal.

The town also pipped Banbury to the post for the award for the best commercial involvement.

Bicester scooped a gold award for the town's focus on recycling and environmental projects,.

Judges said they were particularly impressed with the involvement of the Green Gym and the 76 trees newly planted in the town, together with the Field of Hope roundabout, sponsored by Marie Curie.

Garth Park, in the town, scooped the best local authority park award.

Kidlington's gardening group did the village proud with floral displays beside the main roads, which earned it a silver award.

Oxford pulled out of this year's competition as part of city council budget cuts agreed by the former Lib Dem administration. The Labour group, which took control of the council earlier this year, plans to enter again in 2009.