Article created : 08/07/2010
Competition Results
Sponsored by Essex and Suffolk Water.
Celebration Time for Essex Villages
A village in mid Essex with a strong commitment to green issues and which has its own Community Network co-ordinating events and activities for the whole village is celebrating after claiming the top prize in this year’s Essex Village of the Year and Best Kept Village Competition – organised by Rural Community Council of Essex (RCCE) and sponsored by Essex & Suffolk Water.
Great Waltham near Chelmsford, beat off strong competition notably from Finchingfield and Kirby-le-Soken, placed second and third respectively, to clinch the prestigious Essex Village of the Year award. The three villages receive respectively prizes of £500, £150 and £100.
Great Waltham impressed the judges with its very strong community ethos. All generations, particularly young people, are actively involved in village life and the Community Network plays a key role in co-ordinating an annual programme of events and activities. The village is also focussing strongly on sustainability with two allotment sites fully allocated and a new cycling route linking the village with Broomfield Hospital and Chelmsford being planned. The Parish Council is very pro-active and has just adopted a new Parish Plan to provide a focus for tackling local priorities.
The competition, organised annually by Rural Community Council of Essex (RCCE) also includes the popular Best Kept Village awards. The 5 individual class winners were Great Dunmow, Kelvedon, Great Bentley, Manningtree and Langley. All prize winners received their awards at RCCE’s Annual General Meeting on 7th July.
RCCE Director, Nick Shuttleworth, paid tribute to Great Waltham, which has a population of just over 1,000:
“Our competition is all about rewarding vibrant, enterprising and caring villages, a description that sums up Great Waltham perfectly. Although close to Chelmsford, it retains a real village atmosphere, is extremely effective at bringing the generations together and has some very positive plans for the future.”
He went on: “ Finchingfield and Kirby-le-Soken also deserve praise for their efforts. Finchingfield is responding positively to the challenges of tourism and has a major project underway to restore its historic Guildhall. Whilst Kirby-le-Soken stages one of the oldest and most successful village fetes in Essex which has raised more than £60,000 for local village causes over the past 10 years alone.”
Nick Shuttleworth paid tribute to all this year’s winning villages:
“This competition demonstrates all that is good about rural life in Essex. Our judges were enormously impressed by the enterprise, commitment and sheer hard work of the dedicated volunteers who do so much for our rural communities. We were also delighted to work with Essex & Suffolk Water who joined us as sponsors for this year’s competition.”
Sarah Bowerman, Corporate Affairs Team Leader for Essex & Suffolk Water, who were sponsoring the competition for the first time this year, said: “We are passionate about supporting the communities that we serve so it is a privilege to sponsor these awards to recognise the fantastic achievement of the residents of the winning villages.”
Winner
Great Waltham
2nd
Finchingfield
3rd
Kirby-le-Soken
Best Kept Village Winners
Class 1
Winner Great Dunmow
Runner Up Danbury
Class 2
Winner Kelvedon
Runner Up Theydon Bois
Class 3
Winner Great Bentley
Runner Up Little Hallingbury
Class 4
Winner Manningtree
Runner Up Helions Bumpstead
Class 5
Winner Langley
Runner Up Belchamp St Paul
Best New Entry
Kirby-le-Soken
Merit Awards:
Earls Colne
Great Wakering
Rivenhall
Steeple Bumpstead
Tillingham
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