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Village Celebration for Cheshire's Building Community Life Winners

The winning villages in the 2006 Calor Cheshire Building Community Life competition have been presented with their prizes at an awards event held recently at Antrobus Village Hall.

The competition, launched earlier this year following support from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and Calor – the UK’s leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas, was organised by Sylvia Batty on behalf of Cheshire Community Council. The full results of the competition are as follows:

Winner Antrobus

Runner Up Ollerton & Marthall

Highly Commended Mobberley, Moulton

Jill Naylor of Calor and Sonja Rewhorn representing Defra presented representatives of the winning villages with framed commemorative certificates in recognition of their success. As the winner, Antrobus was presented with £200 prize money, with another £300 being split between the other successful villages in the competition.

Competition organiser, Sylvia Batty, commented: “We would like to congratulate all the Building Community Life winners and thank them for their participation. All four finalist villages are extremely active so our judging team had a very difficult task selecting a winner. The main thing that stood out about Antrobus, and that ultimately won the village the competition, is its fantastic community shop – the first in Cheshire. This is run by 40 volunteers from the village and all profits are fed back into the community for the benefit of all.”

For further information on the Cheshire Building Community Life competition, please contact Cheshire Community Council on 01244 323602, email enquiries@cheshirecc.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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