STOP PRESS!!!!!!

It’s official!  St. Neot is the Calor Village of the Decade. 

Along with the accolade of the prestigious title, there are winnings of £20,000, plus another £1,000 for the regional winner title. 

Two more green plaques are on their way back to St. Neot.

More details to follow ...

Cornwall village St. Neot has beaten off competition from an original tally of around 1,500 villages throughout England and Wales to gain the top spot in the prestigious Calor Village of the Year competition. The results of this year’s competition were announced by guest of honour Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the well-known television personality and farmer-chef famous for his Channel 4 River Cottage Series, at an awards luncheon held on Tuesday 7th December in London where St. Neot was announced as the 2004 Calor Village of the Year for England and Wales.

The competition is organised and funded by Calor, the UK’s leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). It assesses communities on six aspects of village life with categories in community life, business, young people, older people, the environment and, judged separately, information communication technology (ICT).

St. Neot initially carried off the South West and Western England regional title beating off competition from villages representing Avonside, Devon, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Somerset and Worcestershire. In a nail-biting finale, the village was then announced as the overall winner ahead of five other regional winners, gaining the ultimate accolade and £6,000 top prize on top of its £1,500 award for securing the regional title.

St. Neot was presented with its prizes by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Calor’s managing director, Howard Kerr. Hugh commented on the competition: “The Calor Village of the Year competition is such a positive activity for the villages taking part because it encourages them to take a pro-active approach to tackling local issues. On a wider basis, the competition promotes best practice and allows communities to share their ideas and successes. The communities represented here today are good examples of rural villages working hard to provide for all their residents, from the very youngest to the oldest, and I would like to offer them my congratulations.”

The competition 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. St. Neot, which was nominated to take part in the competition by the Cornwall branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), was a regional winner in the 2002 Calor Village of the Year competition, missing out on the overall award to Cambridgeshire village Sutton. This year judges have found that the village’s previous success has acted as a catalyst for ever-increasing community activity. Three major projects in the village have been completed over the last twelve months or so - a new primary school, the restoration of the parish church and the Doorstep Green, which has provided a new garden and performance area at the heart of the village, completed after well over 2,000 hours of voluntary labour. Judges commented: “St. Neot is a tangibly warm and embracing community, setting sights high but achieving extraordinary standards and having a great deal of fun along the way!”

Calor’s managing director, Howard Kerr, commented: “Once again the Calor Village of the Year competition has brought to the fore the excellent work that rural communities throughout England and Wales are carrying out. Like Hugh, I would like to congratulate, and also thank, each and every village that has taken part, whether they have won an award or not. With this competition the benefits go far deeper than prize money or success - simply entering enables communities to get together to celebrate and take stock of what they have achieved. By passing these success stories on to a wider audience, it is hoped that the Calor Village of the Year competition will encourage similar activity in other communities.”

For more information on the Calor Village of the Year competition visit the website (www.villageoftheyear.org) or call 01926 318634.