Press Release: April 2006
Six Scottish communities in the running for £20,000 prize
Six former winners of the Calor Scottish Community of the Year Awards competition are in the running for a £20,000 prize which is on offer in the Calor Village of the Year 10th Anniversary Awards competition.
The six rural communities – which stretch from the Isle of Whithorn in the far South of the country, to Sandwick in Shetland – will be judged during May, in the special UK-wide ‘best of the best’ competition, which Calor is organising to celebrate ten years of its Calor Village of the Year / Calor Scottish Community of the Year programme.
“There are only six rural communities in the competition from Scotland,” explains Calor’s Suzanne Weir, “and one of these will go head-to-head with six regional finalists from England and Wales to establish which community will be crowned ‘Best of the Best’ from past winners of the Calor Village of the Year and Calor Scottish Community of the Year competitions.”
The full list of Scottish communities in the competition is Arran, Assynt, Cockenzie and Port Seton, Langholm, Sandwick and the Isle of Whithorn.
The community that wins the overall award, will be given a cheque for £20,000 to spend on projects within their community. The Scottish, Welsh and English regional winners will each receive a prize of £1,000. All of the Scottish entrants are previous Calor Scottish Community of the Year Award winners.
The Scottish communities will be judged by a panel of judges led by Scottish musician and writer Donnie Munro, who is also Director of Development at the Gaelic College Sabhal Mor Ostaig.
“We are not going to be simply looking at what is pretty and attractive in these communities,” says Donnie, “we are more concerned with what the community does to sustain itself and its people.
“Amongst other things, we will specifically be looking at what communities do for their younger and older people, what they do to encourage interaction between community members, how local businesses are involved and what the communities do to protect and enhance their environment.
“We have much to be proud of in Scotland and I am honoured to have been given this unique opportunity to visit some of the country’s top communities, all of which are previous winners in the Calor Scottish Community of the Year Awards.”
The judges currently have written submissions from each community which they will use for directing their assessments of the communities when they visit.
Douglas Murray, the Secretary of the Association of Scottish Community Councils, is also on the judging panel and has been a judge of the Calor Scottish Community of the Year Awards since they were inaugurated in 1998.
“The Scottish awards haven’t been going quite as long as Calor’s English Village of the Year competition, but I believe that the six communities we have going forward from our country are all capable of competing with anything they have to offer from South of the border.
“Having been a judge of the Community of the Year Awards since 1998, I have been fortunate of visiting all six communities in previous years. When I visit this year, I will be keen to find out how the communities have developed over time and what benefits they feel they gained from winning their Calor Community of the Year Award.”
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April 20, 2006
Notes to Editors:
Calor Scottish Community of the Year / Calor Village of the Year®
Calor, the leading supplier of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) to those living and working in the countryside, has supported rural activities in Scotland, England and Wales for 20 years through its Rural Sponsorship programme, which includes the Calor Scottish Community of the Year competition, the Calor Village of the Year® for England the Calor Welsh Community of the Year competitions.
For further information:
Mark Guest
The PR Partnership
Tel 01224 588900
mark@prpartnership.co.uk
Ashley Ross
The PR Partnership
Tel 01224 588900
ashley@prpartnership.co.uk
After hours: Ken McEwen 01467 633666, Neil Robertson 01224 314241, Mark Guest 01569 766504
Mobiles: Ken McEwen 07768 105449 Neil Robertson 07721 887574 Mark Guest 07770 852105
ISSUED ON BEHALF OF CALOR SCOTLAND BY THE PR PARTNERSHIP ( SCOTLAND) LTD
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