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Yorkshire's Top Villages Honoured

The winning villages in this year’s Calor Yorkshire Village of the Year and Building Community Life competitions have been honoured at a recent presentation event held at Whixley Village Hall.

The village of Whixley was revealed as the winner of the 2006 Calor Yorkshire Village of the Year competition back in September. The other winning villages in the competitions are as follows:

Calor Yorkshire Village of the Year competition (N Yorkshire West) Winner: Whixley (£750 prize money)

Runner Up Catterick (£350 prize money)

Highly Commended : Green Hammerton , Kettlewell, Bishop Monkton

Calor Building Community Life competitions:

North Yorkshire West Winner Bishop Monkton (£500 prize money)

North Yorkshire East Winner Sheriff Hutton (£500 prize money)

South & West Yorkshire Winner Hepworth (£500 prize money)

The competitions are organised by Yorkshire Rural Community Council (YRCC) and the Yorkshire Village of the Year competition is sponsored by Calor – the UK’s leading supplier of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has provided competition support and prize money for the three Building Community Life competitions.

Chris O’Bee of Calor presented representatives of the winning villages with their prizes, which included framed commemorative certificates. He was joined by David Wilford, representing Defra, for the presentation of the Building Community Life prizes.

Competition judges commented: “We would like to offer our congratulations to all of the winning villages in this year’s competitions. Standards have been very high across the board and the communities thoroughly deserve their success. In the Building Community Life competitions, Bishop Monkton impressed us with the way its community has banded together to help in the construction of the village’s own community facility and demonstrated how businesses can contribute to building community life. Sherriff Hutton showed particular care in involving all members of the community in the village activities and being a model of inclusivity. And the sheer range of groups and activities in Hepworth, along with the tremendous effort that was put into the competition, was very refreshing to see.

“In terms of the Village of the Year competition, Catterick showed a wide range of active village groups and organisations backed by a supportive parish council and able to benefit from business sponsorship. Strong on Community Life, ICT and Environmental activities with some exciting new projects in hand, Catterick is an active community seeking to move forward and not rest on its laurels. In Whixley there is something for everybody to get involved in and a busy programme of activities, centred on the Village Hall. The community has responded well to the pressures for housing development and decline in services - the locally inspired Community Shop is one of very few in Yorkshire. Whixley has real strengths as a community and gets on with things in a quietly effective manner.”

As the 2006 Calor Yorkshire Village of the Year, Whixley 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 England will be competing in the competition, which has a total prize fund of over £39,000 and a top prize of £7,000. Whixley will initially be representing Yorkshire in the North England region of the competition against villages from Cheshire, Cumbria, Durham, Humber & Wolds, Lancashire, Northumberland and Tees Valley.

For further information regarding the Yorkshire Village of the Year and Building Community Life competitions please contact:

Stephen Hall (Competition Co-ordinator), Yorkshire Rural Community Council, William House, Shipton Road, Skelton, York YO30 1XF, tel: 01904 645271, email: Stephen.Hall@yrcc.org.uk. In 2007 the Calor Village of the Year competition will be running in the South & West Yorkshire area.

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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:

Yorkshire Rural Community Council (YRCC)

Based at Skelton, near York, YRCC is an independent charitable and voluntary organisation working across rural areas of north, south and west Yorkshire and the City of York. It works to help communities improve the quality of life for all people living and working in rural Yorkshire.

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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