Press Archive

Do you want to Celebrate the Community Spirit in your Village?

Villages in Wiltshire have been given an extra month to put together an entry for this year’s Wiltshire Best Kept Village and Building Community Life competitions.

Entry forms for both competitions were sent out to villages across the county during February and the original closing date for completed entries was Friday 1st April. However, in order to encourage more villages to benefit from the competitions, the closing date has been extended to 30th April. Branch Chairman of Wiltshire CPRE, George McDonic, explained: “The Best Kept Village competition has been running for many years in Wiltshire, and, from past experience, we know what a worthwhile and beneficial experience entering the competition is for communities. When villagers work together to complete their entry, it brings alive a community spirit in them that just can’t be replicated in any other activity. We want as many villages as possible to benefit from this, whether it’s by entering the Best Kept Village competition, or the newly introduced Building Community Life competition.”

The competitions are organised by the Wiltshire Branch of the CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) and sponsored by Calor, the UK’s leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), with additional support from the Warminster Journal and the County and District Councils. Villages are free to enter either competition, and do not have to compete in the Building Community Life competition in order to enter the Best Kept Village element.

The Building Community Life competition has come about thanks to support from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). Defra is providing additional funding at both county and national level in 2005 to enhance the newly established Building Community Life category. This element of Wiltshire’s competition will be judged separately from the Best Kept Village, and offers a number of cash prizes.

A Building Community Life winner will be chosen for each of Wiltshire’s four districts (Kennet, North Wiltshire and Thamesdown, Salisbury and West Wiltshire) and each will receive £125 prize money. George McDonic added: “Entering either competition is an opportunity for communities to celebrate what they’ve got and to say ‘well done’ to villagers who work together to help make community projects happen, whilst also possibly benefiting from some worthwhile monetary prizes along the way!”

One village will also have the chance of following the footsteps of Ramsbury in 2004 and gaining recognition at national level as well as additional cash prizes in the English Calor Village of the Year^® competition, which this year has a prize fund of over £36,000 and a top prize of £6,000. The deadline for entries to the Wiltshire Best Kept Village and Building Community Life competition is now Saturday 30th April 2005. First round judging will take place in early to mid June and the winners will be announced on 1st August with a presentation event to be held later in the year.

For further information, please contact Margaret Armand Smith, competition administrator, on 01380 722157 / wiltscpre@f2s.com.

Further press information from: Emma Flinn, Flent PR Ltd tel: 0161 817 4200 email: e.flinn@amaze.com