Villages engage on a fight to the death

National contest exposes the erosion of rural life

Monday 17th April 2006
The Daily Telegraph
By Amy Iggulden

The combatants are already lining up like a group of veteran campaigners. But this year's fight to be Britain's best village is exposing some deep new wounds.

In a special 10th anniversary competition to find the "best of the best", every past regional and national winner has been invited to take part.

At stake is £20,000, the chance to erect a sign on the village green that will upstage all others and a confidence boost that some threatened communities say they seriously need.

From Coniston in the north, the first ever village of the year, to Sutton in the south, armies of organisers are working to ensure that they bring hom ethe trophy in September.

"Standards are extremely high," said Suzanne Weir, the manager of the Calor village of the year contest. "It's all very exciting."

However, the passing of the years has not been kind to some of the 36 entrants. One village, Sutton in Cambridgeshire, has lost a library, while another contestant has lost its school building. A third learnt just weeks ago that its tourist office was closing.

With the continuing erosion of rural shops and services, villages say they are fighting harder than ever to keep their bustle. Figures from the Institute for Grocery Distribution suggest that independent corner shops could be closing at a rate of 2,000 a year, while more than 140 rural post offices closed in 2004 and 2005.

About 80 local libraries are also under threat from overstretched local authorities.

In Edington, Wilts, a village of about 700 people that was joint national winner in 1999, the school is now boarded up after a playgroupl scheme failed. The community didn't have enough children to make the project viable.

The organiser of Edington's bid, David Perkins, said it was one of many rural communities under threat from forces too strong to be overcome by hanging baskets or village fetes. "Villages are dying and rural employment is dying," he said.

"People need to work in towns, yet the petrol you need to get there is going up and then you can't park.

"This contest has made us really buzz. It is the talk of the pub and the post office."

One important factor in Edington's last win was the reclaimed post office run from a domestic garage by Pauline Dorgan.

"It is so sad that so many post offices are closing," said Mrs Dorgan. "I am getting worried about the loss of business from the plans to cut the post office cars scheme. It would be a wonderful boost for us to win but that is a long way off."

Almost 300 miles away, in Coniston, Cumbria, the community is gearing up to regain the title it won in 1997.

Since then, the village of about 1,000 has used a lottery grant to set up the Ruskin Museum, dedicated to the poem and author John Ruskin.

The parish council is also in talks with Lake District National Park Authority about building affordable homes to stop the drift of young people elsewhere.

Only one past national winner is absent from the contest this year, Tedburn St Mary, Devon, because no one had time to take on the bid.

The anniversary competition is being run alongside the 2006 England-wide contest.