Press Archive

Hertfordshire Village of the Year Winners to be Honoured at Presentation Ceremonies

The winning villages in the 2005 Hertfordshire Village of the Year competition are to be honoured at two village based presentation ceremonies taking place on Saturday 23rd July. The first ceremony is being held in the village of Potten End at 12 noon. Potten End is this year’s Village of the Year for West Hertfordshire and the overall winner of the competition. This will be followed by a ceremony in Brickendon Liberty – the Village of the Year for East Hertfordshire, which commences at 3.30pm.

Villagers will be gathering to celebrate their success and the Village of the Year Trophies will be unveiled by the Lord Lieutenant of the County and President of competition organisers CPRE – The Hertfordshire Society, Sir Simon Bowes Lyon, KCVO. They will be joined by representatives of all the other winning villages in this year’s competition. Dave Blair of competition sponsor Calor and Mike Barnes representing Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) will be presenting them with their prizes. The ceremonies will also be attended by the Chairman of Hertfordshire County Council, Cllr Bryan Hammond, and District Council representatives.

The full results of the 2005 Hertfordshire Village of the Year competition are as follows -

Village of the Year West and overall winner

Potten End

Village of the Year East

Brickendon Liberty

Small Village of the Year

Preston

Building Community Life category winner

Barkway

Most Improved Community Life winner

Furneux Pelham

Best Community Project

Redbourn

Business category winner

Woolmer Green

Young People category winner

Flamstead

Older People category winner

Braughing

Environment category winner

Ickleford

Information Communication Technology (ICT) category winner

Redbourn

Winner of the Dorothy Abel Smith Award for Young People

Jodie Bryant of Flamstead

Winner of the Peterkin (fomerly Judges’ Special) Award

Colin Reedman of Wilstone

The competition is sponsored by Calor, the UK’s leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), with additional support from Hertfordshire County Council and the Hertfordshire Mercury. Also, thanks to competition support from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) this year, there is an extra £500 prize money which is going to the winners in the Building Community Life, Most Improved Community Life and Best Community Project sections of the competition as well to the winners of the Dorothy Abel Smith and Peterkin Awards.

Potten End, as the overall winner of the competition, and Redbourn, as the ICT category winner, will now go forward to represent the county in the prestigious national English Calor Village of the Year^® competition, with the opportunity of following in the footsteps of Hunsdon and Brookmans Park last year and gaining recognition at national level as well as a share in the £36,000 prize fund. They will be competing in the East England region of the competition against villages from Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.

For further information, please contact Jo Simson on 01438 717587, email office@cpreherts.org.uk or visit the CPRE - The Hertfordshire Society website (www.cpreherts.org.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