Press

Royal Visitor Announces Calor Village of the Year^® Winners

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has announced the overall regional winners in the 2005 Welsh Calor Village of the Year^® competition.

The announcement was made in the village of Pendoylan on Wednesday 14th July where The Prince had spent time touring the community with The Duchess of Cornwall. Pendoylan was the Environment category winner for Wales in the 2004 Calor Village of the Year^® competition. This year, a competition specifically for Welsh communities has been introduced which was launched on 1st March. The first round of judging in the 2005 Welsh Calor Village of the Year^® competition was completed on 13th July when overall winners for North and South Wales were selected.

The Prince of Wales revealed that the village of Clawddnewydd in Denbighshire is the winner for North Wales, and the village of Ffarmers in Carmarthenshire the winner for the South. Both villages will now 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. As regional winners Clawddnewydd and Ffarmers each receive £500, with the chance of winning a further £1,500 as the overall winner and additional prize money for any category prizes awarded.

The tour of Pendoylan included a visit to the local school and the village’s church, before culminating in the unveiling of a plaque on the village green to commemorate both the Royal visit and Pendoylan’s success in winning the Environment category for Wales in the 2004 Calor Village of the Year^® competition.

Suzanne Weir, Calor’s communications manager, commented: “We are delighted that TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall spent so much 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 was able to announce 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
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