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Rayne Reigns Supreme for ICT

The Essex village of Rayne has come out tops for Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the 2006/7 Calor Village of the Year® for England competition.

The village was revealed as the regional ICT winner for East England back in July and, as such, was up against four other regional winners for the overall award – Allendale, Northumberland (North England); Bidford on Avon, Warwickshire (Central England); Tarrington, Herefordshire (West England); and Herstmonceux, Sussex (South England).

Rayne was announced as the overall ICT winner at the glamorous Calor Village of the Year® awards luncheon, which took place at Skinner’s Hall in London on Tuesday 16 th October with guest of honour food writer and presenter Sophie Grigson. Village representatives were presented with £1,000 prize money on top of the £500 awarded to the community as a regional ICT winner.

The Calor Village of the Year® for England competition rewards vibrant, self-sustaining village communities which, irrespective of size, have made the best of local opportunities to maintain and enhance the quality of life for all residents. The competition, which is organised and funded by gas supplier Calor, judged villages on six categories in total covering Building Community Life, Business, Young People, Older People, the Environment and Information Communication Technology (ICT).

The overall ICT award was judged by Ellie Stoneley on behalf of UKVillages.co.uk. Ellie commented: “This year the overall ICT award was harder to judge than ever, the standard of the entries was superb - all of them demonstrating a real enthusiasm for involving the whole community in IT projects. The ICT category award really sets an exemplary standard and it has been fascinating to see how villages have raised the bar during the last seven years.

"Rayne is a vibrant community which has embraced ICT in a way that includes rather than excludes the wider community. Some 89% of the community has used the website; free Internet lessons are offered to local residents; and the Parish Council and other community groups work to ensure that information is circulated widely. Rayne's entry really stood out due to the 'marketing' undertaken locally. All too often wonderful village web and IT training initiatives are launched but fail due to the lack of local awareness - this will not be the case in Rayne where even the local estate agent puts the website address on new property details. The village of Rayne really did fight off stiff opposition from throughout England and are a worthy winner of the Calor Village of the Year® for England overall ICT award."

For further information regarding the competition please contact Emma Flinn or Sara Tomkins on 0161 817 4200, email emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk.

Ends

Further press information available from: Emma Flinn, Connectpoint, tel: 0161 817 4221, email: emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk

CALOR VILLAGE OF THE YEAR® FOR ENGLAND COMPETITION 2006/7 FINAL RESULTS

Overall Winner: Allendale, Northumberland

Regional Winners:  

Regional Category Winners:

(Regional overall winners are highlighted in bold)

Defra Building Community Life Award for the overall winner of the Building Community Life category: Filkins and Broughton Poggs, Oxfordshire

Special award for the overall winner of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) category: Rayne, Essex

Notes to Editors:

Calor Village of the Year®

Calor, the leading supplier of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) to those living and working in the countryside, has supported rural activities in England, Scotland and Wales for 20 years through its Rural Sponsorship programme, which includes the Calor Village of the Year® for England competition.

The Calor Village of the Year® for England competition, now in its eleventh year, was founded and developed by Calor, and is organised and funded by the company on an annual basis.

Please note that Calor Village of the Year® is a registered trademark and should be referred to in full in all circumstances.

Entry to the Calor Village of the Year® for England competition is through the existing county competition network. Every year, Calor sponsors the majority of the county village competitions – which this year total more than 40 – each of which is invited to nominate one village to take part in the Calor Village of the Year® for England competition.

The national Calor Village of the Year® judges look for well-balanced, pro-active, caring communities which, irrespective of size, have made the best of local opportunities to maintain and enhance the quality of life for all residents.

The prize money for the 2007 national Calor Village of the Year® for England competition alone stands at over £36,000. First prize is £7,000 with £2,000 going to each of five regional winners. In addition, there are five category prizes of £500 within each region (covering Business, Environment, Care for Older People, Care for Young People and Information Communications Technology), and a prize of £750 for the winner of the Building Community Life category in each of the five regions. The five regional winners of the Information Communication Technology category are judged to find an overall winner, the award for which is £1,000. There is also, thanks to support from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a prize of £2,000 for an overall Building Community Life winner, which is selected from the five regional winners.

For general information on the Calor Village of the Year® for England competition:

email: info@calorvillageoftheyear.org or visit: www.calorvillageoftheyear.org

For all media enquiries relating the Calor Village of the Year® competition, please contact Emma Flinn:

email: emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk or tel: 0161 817 4221

For all general enquiries relating to the Calor Village of the Year® competition, please contact Brian Challis:

email: b.challis@ntlworld.com or tel: 01962 629768

UKVillages.co.uk

For further information on UKVillages please contact Ellie Stoneley at UKVillages.co.uk on 0845 634 3243 or email ellie@ukvillages.co.uk.

1. Launched in April 2000, UKVillages.co.uk is a national website with free web pages for every single village, town, city and suburb in the UK - UKVillages.co.uk is being visited by 631,600 visitors a month.

2. UKVillages.co.uk has become a valuable resource for the promotion of community life both locally and to a wider tourist audience - the guest book records thousands of comments from visitors from around the world and those seeking to find information on old family and friends.

3. UKVillages.co.uk offers information channels for locally contributed community content and researched information.

4. UKVillages is a small social enterprise based in a converted barn near the river in Grantchester just outside Cambridge, the company works with the voluntary, public and private sectors to support & promote community activity.

5. UKVillages also offers small grants and funds to community groups via the UKVillages Community Kitty www.UKVillages.co.uk/kitty

Further information on UKVillages can be found at www.UKVillages.co.uk/AboutUs

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