Northamptonshire Village Awards return for 2022
Northamptonshire ACRE is pleased to announce that the annual Northamptonshire Village Awards, which are an opportunity for villages and groups to celebrate and share what they like about their village and what makes it a great place to live, are back. The awards have been put on hold for the last two years due to the pandemic but they will go ahead again in 2022. Villages can enter from now until 31st January 2022 and the judges will visit each entrant during April and May to assess them. Every entrant will receive either a Bronze, Silver or Gold level award as well a cash prize, courtesy of CPRE Northamptonshire’s sponsorship. Groups can also separately enter the Creative Use of a Communal Space category. One village will be chosen as the overall Northamptonshire Best Village 2022 and everyone will receive their awards at the Presentation Evening, on Monday 11th July 2022 at the Hunsbury Hill Centre in Northampton.
The 2022 Northamptonshire Village Awards are again sponsored by CPRE Northamptonshire and are open to all villages in the county with a population under 6,000. These awards are a wonderful way for residents to showcase their rural community as well as a chance to audit village life and build for the future, just like Glapthorn did in 2019. ‘’We knew that our village is special, so we decided to go for it!’’ says 2019 Best Village Winners Glapthorn Parish Secretary, Elizabeth Garnish. “We simply could not believe our success when the results were announced…We are all so proud to see our trophies and certificates on display – fitting tributes to our amazing community spirit”.
The level of award given is based upon how well the village does across a range of criteria that covers all aspects of village life, from its facilities and amenities, local activities, tidiness and presentation to its environment, future sustainability and most importantly community spirit!
To help groups who are interested in entering but would like to know more about the sort of information to include in their entry, we are running two free Q&A sessions on Tuesday 12 October at 1.30pm and Thursday 14 October at 6pm where the judges will be able to answer any questions. If any Parish Council, community group or individual would like to book a place on one of the sessions, please email acre@northantsacre.org.uk.
So if you are proud of your village and want to share that with others, why not enter? As Elizabeth Garnish from Glapthorn remarked, “The whole process turned out to be really good fun. The awards have been an inspiration!”
Full details on how to enter the competition, along with the application form can be found at https://www.northantsacre.org.uk/northamptonshire-village-awards-2022. The closing date for applications is Monday 31st January 2022.
For more information contact
Natasha Jimenez Sanchez
Project Administrator, Northamptonshire ACRE
Email: acre@northantsacre.org.uk