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Call to Action for Cambridgeshire Villages

Communities throughout Cambridgeshire are being reminded not to leave it too late if they want to enter the 2007 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Community Life Awards. Leaflets were sent out to the county’s villages, market towns, community groups, community buildings and pubs back in February inviting them to enter and they have until Saturday 30th June to send their entries in.

The Awards are organised by Cambridgeshire ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) with sponsorship provided by Calor in association with Archant and others. They fall into three different areas:

The Cambridgeshire Volunteer Awards are sponsored by Cambridgeshire County Council. They recognise that there are a huge number of volunteers at work in the county, enriching our communities in so many ways, through a huge range of activities. The Volunteer Awards are a chance to nominate those local heroes and unsung volunteer for their outstanding contribution to community life. The awards themselves do not have a huge monetary value but are a symbol of the County’s appreciation of individual voluntary effort.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Village of the Year award is sponsored by Calor, the UK’s leading supplier of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). Scenic beauty is not important. What matters is community spirit and achievement. The prize is £1,000 for the community to spend however it wishes. The winning village will have the added honour of being nominated to go forward and represent Cambridgeshire in the prestigious Calor Village of the Year® for England competition 2007/8. This will give them the opportunity of gaining recognition at national level as well as a share of a prize fund totalling more than £36,000.

The final section, Aspects of Community Life is sponsored by Archant (the local newspaper group) and a host of other local businesses and organisations. Aspects of Community Life aims to give community groups and locally-run facilities recognition for the huge, positive impact they have on different aspects of community life. Winners will benefit from cash awards of between £200 and £500. The categories available for entries are: Children and Young People in the Community, Older People in the Community, Environment and the Community, Heritage in the Community, Enterprise in the Community, Learning in the Community, Community Pub of the Year and Community Building of the Year.

Awards co-ordinator, Alison Brown commented: “I want to encourage as many communities as possible to get involved in these Awards. Entering can be a very positive activity for a community because often they don’t realise just how much they’ve got going on until they actually collect the information together. The closing date is approaching, but there is still plenty of time for communities to enter if they act now.”

For more information:

Visit the awards website which can be found at www.communitylifeawards.org.uk. All the guidelines and entry/nomination forms can be downloaded from here.

Request an entry pack by calling the Community Life Awards Co-ordinators, Alison Brown on 01353 865029 or Julie Weekes on 01353 865032.

Winners will be announced and the awards presented at a dinner event on 4th September 2007 at the Burgess Civic Hall in St Ives.

Ends

Further press information available from: Emma Flinn, Connectpoint, tel: 0161 817 4221, email: emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk

Notes to Editors:

Cambridgeshire ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) is a rural development charity that works throughout the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area – and occasionally beyond - enabling people to take positive action to enhance their rural communities.

For further information on the work of Cambridgeshire ACRE, please contact Alison Brown on 01353 865029 or e-mail alison.brown@cambsacre.org.uk.

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 competition.

The Calor Village of the Year® for England competition, now in its eleventh 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. Every year, Calor sponsors the majority of the county village competitions – which this year total more than 40 – each of which is invited to nominate one village to take part in the 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 2007 national Calor Village of the Year® for England competition alone stands at over £36,000. 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 support from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 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 competition:
email: info@calorvillageoftheyear.org or visit: www.calorvillageoftheyear.org

For all media enquiries relating the Calor Village of the Year® competition, please contact Emma Flinn:
email: emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk or tel: 0161 817 4221

For all general enquiries relating to the Calor Village of the Year® competition, please contact Brian Challis: email: b.challis@ntlworld.com or tel: 01962 629768