Press Archive

Best Kept Village Winners Revealed

The winning communities in the 2005 Oxfordshire Best Kept Village competition have been revealed at a presentation event taking place at Holton Village Hall on the evening of Thursday 14th July.

Paul Goodall of competition sponsor Calor, the UK’s leading supplier of LPG, presented the successful villages with their prizes which included framed certificates. The results are as follows –

Winners Class

1st: Horspath

2nd: Stratton Audley

2nd: Shipton-under-Wychwood

2nd: East Hagbourne

Large Villages

1st: Steventon

2nd: Blewbury

3rd: Marcham

4th: Radley

Medium Villages

1st: Cropredy

2nd: Tackley

3rd: East Hendred

Small Villages

1st: Filkins and Broughton Poggs

2nd: Churchill

3rd: Cassington

4th: Hornton

Best New Entry

1st: Tackley

2nd: Ramsden

3rd: Drayton St Leonard

CPRE

Specially commended: Tackley

Highly Commended: Sutton Courtenay

Commended: Berinsfield

Competition organiser on behalf of Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, Peter Lund, commented: “Judges had a difficult task selecting the winners from the original 43 entrants, but it was also an enjoyable one – as ever standards were very good. I would like to thank all the villages that participated in this year’s competition and offer my congratulations to the winning communities.”

Villages are also reminded that the deadline for entries to the Oxfordshire Village of the Year competition has been extended to 26th July, so there is still plenty of time to prepare and submit an entry. Peter Lund added: “This competition is very different to the Best Kept competition. It’s all about community – what’s being done to benefit residents in six key aspects of village life. Categories cover Building Community Life, Business, Older People, Young People, the Environment and Information Communications Technology (ICT). We’ve had a positive response so far, but I really want as many villages as possible to benefit from the experience of taking part. Completing an entry can best be described as carrying out a community health check.”

Thanks to competition support from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) this year, there is extra prize money available to villages entering the Oxfordshire Village of the Year competition. Defra is providing additional funding in 2005 at both county and national level to enhance the newly established Building Community Life category, leading to the availability of a £500 prize fund for that section of the county competition. There is also a prize of £250 for the overall winner of the competition, which in addition will have the opportunity to go forward and gain recognition at national level in the 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.

For further information, please contact Peter Lund on 01865 248966, or email peter.g.lund@btinternet.com. Contact details for representatives of the winning villages in the Best Kept Village competition can be found below and, whilst details of the results should not be published before 7pm on Thursday 14th July, they can be contacted before that date.

Photographs of the presentations can be obtained after 14th July from Emma Flinn at Flent PR on 01223 845781, email emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk