County's Top Villages Revealed

Warwickshire’s top villages are celebrating as the county results of the 2006 Calor Warwickshire Best Kept Village and Village of the Year competitions have been revealed.

Over 80 communities took part this year in one or both competitions, which are run by Warwickshire Rural Community Council (WRCC) and sponsored by Calor – the UK’s leading supplier of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas).

The Warwickshire Best Kept Village competition, which also incorporated the Best Kept Churchyard competition this year, encourages communities to work together to keep their surroundings tidy and well maintained. The results of this competition are as follows –

Best Kept Small Village Winner: Sambourne
Best Kept Large Village Winner: Leek Wootton
Best Kept Churchyard Winner: Church of St Peter and St Paul, Butlers Marston

Awards will be presented to the winning communities at presentation ceremonies in the winning villages on September 30th from 1.30pm onwards.

The Warwickshire Village of the Year competition judged villages of up to 5,000 residents on six key aspects of village life with categories covering Building Community Life, Business, Young People, Older People, the Environment and Information Communication Technology (ICT). Thanks to continued competition support from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) at both county and national level, the winning village in the Building Community Life category will benefit from £500 prize money. The results of this competition are as follows:

2006 Calor Warwickshire Village of the Year: Bidford-on-Avon
Information Communication Technology Winner: Barton-on-the-Heath
Building Community Life Winner: Middleton

As the 2006 Calor Warwickshire Village of the Year, Bidford-on-Avon has the added honour of being nominated to go forward and represent the county in the prestigious national Calor Village of the Year® for England competition. More than 40 villages across the country will be competing in the competition, which has a total prize fund of over £39,000 and a top prize of £7,000. Bidford-on-Avon will initially be representing Warwickshire in the Central England region of the competition against villages from Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Staffordshire.

The Warwickshire Village of the Year winners will be presented with their prizes at the Annual General Meeting of the WRCC on Saturday 14th October at Bidford-on-Avon Village Hall.

Competition organiser, Ariadne Uslu, commented: “This year’s competitions have once again highlighted some excellent communities here in Warwickshire. Standards have been very high throughout and our judges had a difficult task selecting the final winners. We very much look forward to celebrating with representatives of the winning villages.”

For further information on the competitions please contact Ariadne Uslu at WRCC on 02476 303232, or email her at ariadneu@wrccrural.org.uk.

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Further press information from: Emma Flinn, Flent PR, a Connectpoint Company
tel: 0161 817 4200 / email: emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk

Notes to Editors:

Calor Village of the Year®

Calor, the leading supplier of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) to those living and working in the countryside, has supported rural activities in England, Scotland and Wales for 20 years through its Rural Sponsorship programme, which includes the Calor Village of the Year® for England and Wales competitions and the Calor Scottish Community of the Year competition.

The Calor Village of the Year® for England competition, now in its tenth year, was founded and developed by Calor, and is organised and funded by the company on an annual basis.

Please note that Calor Village of the Year® is a registered trademark and should be referred to in full in all circumstances.

Entry to the Calor Village of the Year® for England competition is through the existing county competition network.

Following competition support in 2005, Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) is once again providing Calor with additional funding in 2006 to enhance the community life element of the competition through the Building Community Life category. Defra’s special aim is to encourage the inclusion of all groups and individuals into the fabric of rural community life - building cohesive and mutually supportive communities. Defra’s involvement means that every village in England has the opportunity to enter the 2006 Calor Village of the Year® for England competition.

The national Calor Village of the Year® judges look for well-balanced, pro-active, caring communities which, irrespective of size, have made the best of local opportunities to maintain and enhance the quality of life for all residents.

The prize money for the national Calor Village of the Year® for England competition alone stands at over £39,000. First prize is £7,000 with £2,000 going to each of five regional winners. In addition, there are five category prizes of £500 within each region (covering Business, Environment, Care for Older People, Care for Young People and Information Communications Technology), and a prize of £750 for the winner of the Building Community Life category in each of the five regions. The five regional winners of the Information Communication Technology category are judged to find an overall winner, the award for which is £1,000. There is also, thanks to the Defra support, a prize of £2,000 for an overall Building Community Life winner, which is selected from the five regional winners.

For general information on the Calor Village of the Year® for England and Wales competitions:
email: info@calorvillageoftheyear.org, tel: 01962 629768, or visit: www.calorvillageoftheyear.org

For more information on the Calor Scottish Community of the Year competition:
visit: www.communityoftheyear.co.uk

For more information on Defra:
visit: www.defra.gov.uk or for information specific to rural affairs visit: www.defra.gov.uk/rural/default.htm

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