Press Archive

Villages on Tenterhooks as Presentation Event Approaches

The 30 villages that have entered this year’s Leicestershire & Rutland Best Village competition have only a couple of weeks to wait until they find out which communities have been successful. The full results of the competition will be announced on Thursday 25th August when a total of £5,500 prize money will be presented at an awards event which will be attended by Lady Gretton, Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire. John Harrison of competition sponsor Calor will also be attending the event, which is being hosted by the Leicester Mercury, the competition’s other main sponsor.

The focus of the competition is to find active villages and competition organiser on behalf of the Rural Community Council (Leicestershire & Rutland), Diana Cook, has certainly not been disappointed. She commented: “The standard of the entries this year has been very good and the communities have put a lot of effort into the competition. The amount of activity going on in villages across Leicestershire & Rutland is remarkable. In particular, the smaller communities have really pulled out the stops. When a community doesn’t have a lot of facilities or services, residents have to make a big effort to pull everyone together in others ways and this has been achieved by a lot of small villages where the community spirit is outstanding. I am pleased that the new format of the competition has proved so successful in its first year. A good standard has been set for future years and I think the competition can only go from strength to strength. I am really looking forward to celebrating with the villages on 25th August and I think that it will be a really enjoyable evening.”

Villages that have entered categories in the 2005 Leicestershire & Rutland Best Village competition are as follows:

East Goscote, Frisby on the Wreake, North Kilworth, Peatling Magna, Ashby Parva, Willoughby Waterleys, Hoby, Barrowden, Medbourne, Market Overton, Lubenham, Blackfordby, Sharnford, Huncote, Woodhouse & Woodhouse Eaves, Bottesford, Thurnby & Bushby, Moira, Markfield, Kibworth, Long Whatton, Fleckney, Barrow upon Soar, Hallaton, Billesdon, Empingham, Broughton Astley, Greetham, Thurnby and Cottesmore.

For judging purposes villages are split into the following size categories: population under 500, population 501-1,000, population 1,001-2,000, population 2,001-5,000 and, finally, population 5,001-10,000. The competition comprises of seven categories in total: Building Community Life, Col John Heggs Best Village Hall, Village Venture, Use of Information Technology, Young People, Older People and Business. To qualify for the Best Village Award a community must have entered the Building Community Life category plus any two of the other six sections. There are also two special prizes, which will be awarded at the discretion of the competition committee: Anthony Stuart Memorial Prize for £150 and the Leicester Mercury Special Prize for £150.

There are first prizes in each of the categories of £300 and second prizes of £100, apart from the Building Community Life category, which offers a £500 prize for the winner and £150 for the runner up. This additional prize money is thanks, in part, to Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), which is providing additional funding at both county and national level to enhance the newly established Building Community Life category.

One village from each county will also be nominated to enter the prestigious national English Calor Village of the Year^® competition, which this year has a prize fund of over £36,000 and a top prize of £6,000.

Further information on the Leicestershire & Rutland Best Village competition is available from Diana Cook at the Rural Community Council by email at dcook@ruralcc.org.uk, or by telephone on 0116 2689706.

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