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Essex Village of the Year and Best Kept Village Competition

The competition is all about encouraging vibrant, enterprising and caring rural communities. The judges will be looking for those villages which, irrespective of size, are doing most to enhance the quality of life for all inhabitants.

How to Enter

Each village must have a ‘sponsoring organisation’ that submits its entry. This will normally be the Parish Council, but it is important to consult with community groups and other interested parties before submitting the entry. There may be other people in the village only too keen to help in preparing the entry.

For judging purposes the competition is divided into two elements:

Community Profile

Every village will be judged on the information it provides in this checklist style questionnaire, which is based around the four themes of Community, Business, Sustainability and Communications. Smaller communities may not physically possess some of the facilities/services mentioned, but if local people access them through a neighbouring community and you are doing something to assist this, please notify us of this in the ‘others’ box at the end of each question. The size of the community will be taken into account when marking the Community Profile section.

Judges’ Inspection

Every village will be inspected by our volunteer judges. Judging will be based on 20 individual categories worth 10 marks each. Very few villages will actually possess every one of the 20 categories, but smaller communities should not be deterred. Overall marks are calculated on an average formula