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Lochwinnoch Community Council wins Community Enhancement through the Internet Award at Calor Scottish Community of the Year Awards

Following a successful track record, the Lochwinnoch Community Council’s website, www.lochwinnoch.info, has won the Community Enhancement through the Internet category of the Calor Scottish Community of the Year Awards 2005.

Representatives of the community council received the award from Communities Minister, Malcolm Chisholm MSP, at a ceremony held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) today, Thursday 8 December.

Of the twenty-six short-listed communities represented at the annual event, twelve were finalists for the separate internet category, coming from as far a field as Orkney, the Western Isles, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Now in their eighth year, the awards encompass every aspect of Scottish life, providing communities with an opportunity to gain recognition and reward for their efforts. In determining the outcome of the awards, the judges sought best practices within communities, which could be used as examples to others throughout Scotland.

“Having judged the category for a number of years now, I have enjoyed watching the Lochwinnoch website develop and evolve,” said Dr Douglas Cruickshank, Course Leader MSc in e-Business at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

“The extent of community interaction generated by Lochwinnoch is quite extensive. With an impressive number of active forums, the website hosts online discussions on a variety of topics concerning life in the village. Issues such as road faults can be also reported and are forwarded to the council’s online reporting system. Response times to faults reported in this way are tracked by the community council, allowing the site to be used as a fantastic vehicle for local lobbying.

“Whilst it is relatively straightforward to provide pages of information, the range available to and accessed by the community is remarkable. Equally impressive is the voluntary hosting and management of the site, which receives little or no external funding.”

Since launching in 1998 the awards, which are supported by Calor Scotland in association with Communities Scotland and backed by The Association of Scottish Community Councils (ASCC), The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Business in the Community (SBC) and The Robert Gordon University (RGU), have been entered by more than a third of all Scottish communities from the Borders to Shetland, as well as all the country’s major urban areas.

The award’s categories include environment, business, younger people, older people and community life, as well as a stand-alone award for community websites. Judging the awards were representatives of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Business in the Community (SBC), Communities Scotland, the Association of Scottish Community Councils (ASCC) and The Robert Gordon University and a Community Council Support Officer for a local authority.

For further information regarding the awards visit www.communityoftheyear.org.uk

December 06 , 2005

Notes to editors:

Full lists of winners, highly commended and commended communities, are available on the Community of the Year website at www.communityoftheyear.org.uk
Photographs are available on request from

Ashley Ross
The PR Partnership
tel 01224 588900
Ashley@prpartnership.co.uk

For further information and pictures contact:
Ashley Ross
Awards Co-ordinator
tel 01224 588900
e-mail ashley@prpartnership.co.uk Ashley@prpartnership.co.uk

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