Press Archive

121 Lincolnshire Communities enter 2005 Best Kept Competition

A total of 121 communities from across all the districts in the county have entered the 2005 Best Kept Village and Small Towns competition in Lincolnshire and entrants are now waiting in anticipation for their visit from the competition judges, which commence on 1st June.

Competition organiser, Teresa Palmer, is pleased with the response to this year’s competition. She said: “The number of entrants is on a par with last year, but what is really positive is the fact that we have quite a few communities that haven’t been involved in the competition for a number of years. The competition is an annual event for many villages which is great; however it’s always good to get some new communities involved to keep everyone on their toes!”

For judging purposes, villages are split into three classes: Class I, population 100 to 500; Class II, population 501 to 2,000; Class III, population 2,001 to 7,000. Judging for these three sections will take place in three rounds during June, July and August. There is also a separate class for Market Towns, which is judged in two rounds during July and August, and for Past Winners, which is judged in just one round in August.

Villages are also being reminded that if they want to enter the Lincolnshire Village of the Year competition they must act fast to beat the closing date for entries of Friday 3rd June. Teresa explained: “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.”

Both the Best Kept and Village of the Year competitions are run by the Community Council of Lincolnshire on behalf of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. They are sponsored by Calor, the UK’s leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) with additional support from Lincolnshire’s District and County Councils, Pennells of Lincoln and Tucann Design and Print. Also, competition support from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) this year has led to the availability of extra prize money for villages entering the 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. This means that there is total of £500 prize money for Lincolnshire’s Building Community Life section, which will be shared amongst one winner (£350) and one runner up (£150).

Later in the year, one village will be nominated to represent the county in the prestigious national English Calor Village of the Year^® competition, with the opportunity of following in the footsteps of Heighington last year or Coningsby in 2003 and gaining recognition at national level as well as a share in the £36,000 prize fund.

Further information regarding the competitions is available from Teresa Palmer by email at bkv@cclincs.com, or by telephoning 01529 302466. The winners will be announced in September, and a formal presentation event will take place on 3rd November.

Further press information from: Emma Flinn, Flent PR Ltd
tel: 0161 817 4200 email: emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk