Press

Calor Village of the Year^® Winner to Welcome Royal Visitors

The village of Pendoylan in the Vale of Glamorgan, the Environment category winner for Wales in last year’s Calor Village of the Year^® competition, is welcoming TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall for a tour of the community on Thursday 14th July. The tour will include a visit to the local school and the village’s church, before culminating in the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate both the Royal visit and Pendoylan’s success in the 2004 Calor Village of the Year^® competition.

During the visit, The Prince of Wales will also be announcing the overall regional winners in the 2005 Welsh Calor Village of the Year^® competition. This competition was introduced this year specifically for Welsh communities and was launched on 1st March. The first round of judging in the Welsh Calor Village of the Year^® competition is currently underway to find overall winners for North and South Wales as well as category winners for each region. The winners for North and South Wales, which are going to be revealed by The Prince on 14th July, will then go forward to the next stage of the competition and face further judging by final round judges in early September when it will be decided which of the two communities will be awarded the prestigious title of 2005 Calor Village of the Year^® for Wales. The outcome of this will be announced at an awards ceremony taking place in Cardiff on 28th September where the 12 regional category winners will also be revealed.

The competition, which judges communities on six aspects of rural village life with categories in Community Life, Business, Young People, Older People, Environment and Information Communication Technology, has attracted a total of 79 entries from villages throughout the Principality in its inaugural year. There is a total of £8,500 prize money at stake for successful villages in the competition. The winning villages for North and South Wales will each receive £500, with the chance of winning a further £1,500 as the overall competition winner and additional prize money for any category prizes awarded.

The shortlisted villages in line for the overall regional award and category awards in the North are Brynteg, Wrexham; Llansannan, Conwy; Clawddnewydd, Denbighshire and Caeathro, Caernarfon. Shortlisted villages in the South are Llanychaer, Pembrokeshire; St Dogmaels, Pembrokeshire; Ffarmers, Carmarthenshire and Gladestry, Powys.

Suzanne Weir, Calor’s communications manager, commented: “We are delighted that TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall will be spending time in Pendoylan meeting members of the community and getting a sense of the environmental qualities that won the village a national award in the 2004 Calor Village of the Year^® competition.

“It is also a great honour for Wales’ newly launched competition that His Royal Highness will be announcing the regional winners. The Prince has demonstrated interest in the competition in general, which both promotes and celebrates village life, for a number of years and has specifically supported this new competition for Wales. I hope that this support will encourage even more communities to participate next year so that the competition in Wales will go from strength to strength.”

For further information regarding the Welsh Calor Village of the Year^® competition please contact Brian Challis on 01962 629768, email info@calorvillageoftheyear.org. You can also refer to the bi-lingual competition website at www.calorvillageoftheyear.org

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