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Herefordshire & Worcestershire Village of the Year Winners Revealed

The winning villages in the 2005 Herefordshire & Worcestershire Village of the Year competition have been revealed.

The competitions are run by Nina Owen on behalf of Community First and sponsored by Calor, the UK’s leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The competitions judge communities on six aspects of village life with categories in Building Community Life, Business, Young People, Older People, the Environment and Information Communication Technology. Prizes are awarded to an overall winner for each county and specifically for the ICT category. Also thanks to competition support from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) this year, there is an extra £500 prize money for each county specifically for the Building Community Life category.

The results are as follows -

The 2005 Herefordshire Village of the Year, Building Community Life and ICT winner is the village of Cradley, which impressed the competition judges with its community spirit and the way in which so many people in the village are involved in building up its community life. The judges also noted the way in which a large number of residents are willing to contribute to the community, both by providing facilities at the village hall and by giving their spare time to schemes such as community transport. The provision for and support of younger villagers was also picked up on by the judges and it was felt that young residents have a voice within the community. The villages of Weobley and Marden have also been honoured in Herefordshire’s competition, as the runner up in the Building Community Life category.

The 2005 Worcestershire Village of the Year and Building Community Life winner is the village of Pebworth. Pebworth welcomed competition judges to the village with a wonderful greeting from all sections of the community, and everyone, from the very youngest to the oldest, was willing to say what a great place the village is to live. It was also noted by the judges just how many community based organisations play an active part in the framework of local community life. They left with the impression that the village has clear plans for the future and will continue to be a vibrant community in years to come. The village of Martley has also been honoured in Worcestershire’s competition, as the winner of the ICT category. Martley has an interesting and informative website and the use of ICT locally is encouraged through the Community Resource Centre which offers low cost computing and printing for community groups.

Competition organiser, Nina Owen, commented: “This year’s competition has been a great success with some really good villages taking part. Whilst the judges had a tough time selecting the winners, they also enjoyed themselves tremendously and experienced some excellent presentations by some of the communities. We are all looking forward to honouring the successful villages at a presentation event to be help later in the year.

“I have been asked the question in the past – what exactly is the point of the competition? Of course for villages who entered this year there has been the incentive of a cash prize at county level. However, it is more than that. The first category for judging is entitled Building Community Life, and this is the principle that underlies the competition. It is not about finding the village with the most facilities, but rather it is an opportunity for village groups to get together and look at how their community makes use of the facilities it has. Or about how community life is being built up in villages all over the country. I hope that this year’s entrants have benefited from taking part in the competition and I hope that even more communities are able to benefit in the years to come.”

Cradley and Pebworth will now go forward to represent Herefordshire and Worcestershire in the prestigious national English Calor Village of the Year^® competition, joined by Martley, also representing Worcestershire, in the ICT category. They have the opportunity of gaining recognition at national level as well as a share in the £36,000 prize fund. Cradley, Pebworth and Martley will be competing in the West England region of the competition against villages from Avonside, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Somerset and Wiltshire.

Further information regarding the competition is available from Nina Owen or Andrea Cooper at Community First by email at ninao@communityhw.org.uk, or by telephoning 01684 573334

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