Press Archive

Portloes is Cornwall's Best Kept Village 2005

The results of the 2005 Cornwall Best Kept Village competition have been announced. The prestigious competition is organised by the Cornwall Branch of the CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England), with sponsorship provided by Calor – the UK’s leading supplier of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas).

The competition focuses on local community spirit, in particular through a village’s well kept environment, and recognises communities pulling together to make the most of what they have got for the benefit of all residents and visitors alike. Judging took place between May and July, and was carried out by a panel of three judges from the Cornwall Federation of Women’s Institutes. Each village received an independent visit from the judges.

The overall winner, gaining the title for the first time, is the village of Portloe in the Roseland Peninsula. Since records for the competition exist from the mid 1950s, it appears that this is the first time that Portloe has won the competition. A regular supporter of the competition, Portloe has frequently figured in the top six villages.

Other winners are as follows-

2nd St. Neot

3rd Altarnun

Joint 4th Kilkhampton

Manaccan

Highly Commended certificates go to -

6th St. Newlyn East

7th Lanreath

8th Helstone

Relative newcomers to the competition, St. Newlyn East and Helstone, figure among the winners for the first time, demonstrating the opportunity for all villages to succeed.

All the winning villages will be presented with framed certificates provided by Calor. A special presentation event will also be held in Portloe in mid September when the village will receive an engraved slate plaque from CPRE (Cornwall Branch) in addition to its Calor certificate.

Courtenay Smale, competition organiser on behalf of the CPRE, stated: “Standards of tidiness in the villages entering the competition continue to improve year on year and are a credit to all the participants. Although not figuring among the winners this year, a special mention should be made to Boscastle, which won the competition in 1995. Despite the terrible setbacks arising from the floods of 16th August 2004 in which a large part of the village was destroyed, Boscastle kept faith by entering the competition this year and, with its positive attitude, will undoubtedly figure again among the winners in the years to come.”

Courtenay and his colleagues will have an even more difficult role in selecting one village to represent Cornwall in the West England region of the Calor Village of the Year^® competition for England 2005. The county Village of the Year competition is quite different to the Best Kept event, judging communities on various aspects of rural village life from care for young and older residents to the way business is integrated into and supports the community. This year, thanks to competition support from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), the Village of the Year competition has had an added boost of £500 prize money in the Building Community Life category. For the first time, all the villages that have entered the Cornwall Best Kept Village competition have also been invited to submit an entry for the county Village of the Year awards. This means that a greater number of communities can compete for the title of 2005 Cornwall Village of the Year as well as the substantial prize monies the competition offers at both county and national level.

For further information please contact Courtenay Smale on 01637 872467, email cvsmale@cpre.freeserve.co.uk

Further press information from: Emma Flinn, Flent PR Ltd
tel: 01223 845781 (direct) / 0161 817 4200 (main office)
email: emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk