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St Neot Crowned Best of the Best’

Cornwall village St Neot has been crowned the overall winner in the Calor Village of the Year® 10th Anniversary Awards, winning the prestigious ‘Best of the Best’ title and £20,000 top prize.

The village’s success was revealed by guest of honour Phillip Schofield at an awards ceremony held on Tuesday 19th September at the Four Seasons Hotel in London. St Neot was announced as one of seven finalists back in July having won the West of England area of the competition. The village has beaten off competition from East Keswick (Yorkshire), Ashover (Derbyshire), Sutton (Cambridgeshire), Ashington (Sussex), Llangernyw (Conwy) and Assynt (Sutherland) to win the overall title.

Calor’s aim in running this special one-off competition was to celebrate 10 years of Calor Village of the Year®. All past regional winners from the competition’s nine year history in England and Wales, as well as past winners from the Calor Scottish Community of the Year competition were invited to enter and a total of 36 villages took part. Judges were looking for evidence of change and development since the participating villages enjoyed initial success in the competition. Judges commented on St Neot: “For such a small community, St Neot has achieved much over the last 10 years. A lot of what they have achieved is based on the efforts of volunteers who have used the skills and expertise of local individuals and encouraged others to participate and learn.

“Skills are shared and objectives achieved in St Neot, creating wonderful facilities for the use of all the community and which are maintained with a great feeling of pride. The ideas and enterprise in St Neot are sustained by boundless energy and desire for a happy, thriving community which makes things happen for the benefit of all.”

Phillip Schofield was joined by Calor’s managing director, Alex Davis, to present representatives of St Neot with prize money totaling £21,000 and a commemorative plaque. Alex Davis commented: “Throughout the 10 years of Calor Village of the Year® many outstanding communities have been highlighted and residents of several hundred villages have worked extremely hard to put themselves forward in the competition. We felt that giving past winners the opportunity to once again showcase their communities and highlight how they’ve moved forward since their initial success was the perfect way of celebrating the 10th year of the competition. We hope that they got as much out of taking part this time as they did the first time round. Our congratulations go to St Neot as the overall winner, but also to the other 35 villages that participated. If the standard of villages taking part remains as high in the next 10 years of the competition then it can only continue to go from strength to strength.”

For further information regarding Calor Village of the Year®, please contact Calor on 01962 629768, email info@calorvillageoftheyear.org, or visit the competition website at www.calorvillageoftheyear.org.

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Further press information from: Emma Flinn, Amaze plc
tel: 0161 817 4200 / email: e.flinn@amaze.com

Calor Village of the Year® 10th Anniversary Awards – Final Results -

Overall Winner: St Neot, Cornwall

Finalists:

Participating Villages (finalists are highlighted in bold):

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 and Wales competitions and the Calor Scottish Community of the Year competition.

The Calor Village of the Year® for England competition, now in its tenth 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.

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.

For general information on the Calor Village of the Year® for England and Wales competitions:
email: info@calorvillageoftheyear.org, tel: 01962 629768, or visit: www.calorvillageoftheyear.org

For more information on the Calor Scottish Community of the Year competition:
visit: www.communityoftheyear.co.uk

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