Press

Villages’ Hopes High as Judging in Welsh Calor Village of the Year^® Comeptition Commences

The 2005 Welsh Calor Village of the Year^® competition is in full flow with initial judging of the written entries currently underway. Villages are now waiting with anticipation to find out whether they will be shortlisted to receive a visit from the competition judges.

The competition, newly launched this year by Calor to better serve the needs of rural communities in Wales, has attracted a total of 79 entries from communities throughout the Principality. Villages were invited to highlight their achievements in up to six areas: Community Life, Business, Young People, Older People, the Environment and Information Communication Technology (ICT). The standard of the entries that have come in is generally high and initial feedback shows that the judges are having a tough time selecting their shortlist.

There is a total of £8,500 prize money at stake for successful villages in the competition. A winner for North and South Wales will be selected for each of the six categories. There will also be overall winners in North and South as well as one winning village for the country, which will gain the prestigious title of 2005 Calor Village of the Year^® for Wales.

Suzanne Weir, Calor’s communications manager, commented: “Our aim in launching this new, bi-lingual competition for Wales was to encourage a greater number of villages to participate and benefit from taking part and working towards a common goal. Now that the entries have come in I am pleased and impressed by both the quantity and the standard – Wales’ villages have really stepped up to the mark and I do not envy the judges their difficult task of narrowing down the 79 entries to a shortlist of just a few for both North and South Wales.”

Villages competing in the South Wales area include:

Pembrokeshire – St. Dogmaels, Llanychaer

Swansea – Gowerton, Gorseinon

Powys – Gladestry

Carmarthenshire – Llandysul, Ceredigion with Pont Tyweli, Templeton, Ffarmers, Felinfoel

Vale of Glamorgan – Pendoylan, Wenvoe, Wick

Cardiff – Penrhys, Michaelston-y-Fedw

A shortlist of villages in North Wales and South Wales will be finalised shortly and judges’ visits will take place in July. Further judging of selected villages will take place in September to find the overall winner for Wales. The full results will be announced at a presentation event taking place in Cardiff on Wednesday 28th September, to which representatives of all the competing villages will be invited. For full details of the competition as it progresses, please refer to the newly launched bi-lingual website at www.calorvillageoftheyear.org

Further press information from: Emma Flinn, Flent PR Ltd
tel: 01223 845781 (direct) 0161 817 4200 (main office)
email: emma.flinn@connectpoint.co.uk