Press Archive

Celebration for Winning Communities in Village Competition

The winning villages in the 2005 Calor Building Community Life competition in the Tees Valley and Redcar & Cleveland areas celebrated their success at a recent presentation event which took place on Wednesday 23rd November at Nature’s World in Middlesbrough.

The competition, organised by Diane Harbron on behalf of Tees Valley Rural Community Council (TVRCC), was launched following support for the Calor Building Community Life competition from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). Defra is providing funding in 2005 at both county and national level to enhance the newly established Building Community Life category.

The winning villages are as follows:

Redcar & Cleveland

Winner: Margrove Park

Runner up: Hutton Village

Best Large Community: Saltburn by the Sea

Most Improved Small Village: Dunsdale

Most Improved Small Village: Boosbeck

Community Centre Highly Commended: Moorsholm

Tees Valley

Winner: Bishopton

Runner up: Summerhouse, Killerby and Denton

Highly Commended: Heighington

The winners and runners up received prizes of £300 and £200 respectively and all successful villages in the competition were presented with framed commemorative certificates. The prizes were presented by John Bainton, Environment Director for the Government Office of the North East representing Defra and Chris Barkas of Calor.

The competition judged villages on many aspects of their community life, from the networks available in a community to support people in need, to the range of activities that goes on in the village hall or other village centre. Diane Harbron commented: “It was very difficult for the judges to decide on the winners because each community rated very highly for different reasons. Margrove Park was selected as the winner for Redcar & Cleveland because of the efforts made by villagers to improve facilities in the village. There is no shop, post office or public house in the village, so the village hall and the play facilities are its main resources. Villagers have made huge improvements to both the play facilities and the village hall, including work to make the hall more accessible.

“In Tees Valley, Bishopton was selected as the winner for the work that has been done to ensure that adequate information is available on the village and its facilities for residents – both new and current. They were also recognised for one particularly innovative project, which provides a helpline for vulnerable residents by providing volunteers with donated mobile phones.”

Margrove Park and Bishopton also have the added honour of representing the Redcar & Cleveland and Tees Valley areas in the prestigious national English Calor Village of the Year^® competition, with the opportunity of gaining recognition at national level as well as a share in the £36,000 prize fund. They are competing in the North England region of the competition against villages from Cheshire, Cumbria, Durham, Humber & Wolds, Lancashire, North Lincolnshire, Northumberland and Yorkshire.

The Calor Village of the Year^® competition judges communities on a total of six aspects of rural village life, one of which is Building Community Life. The other five categories cover Business, Young People, Older People, the Environment and Information Communication Technology (ICT). The full results of the competition will be revealed by guest of honour Alan Titchmarsh at an awards event taking place on December 6th in London.

Further information regarding the Tees Valley and Redcar & Cleveland Building Community Life competitions is available from Diane Harbron at TVRCC on 01642 213852, email tvrcc@onyxnet.co.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