About the awards | About the awards |
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The Countryside Alliance Awards started life as the Best Rural Retailer competition. The Awards are a Countryside Alliance initiative. First conceived of in 2005, they were borne of a need to support and promote rural communities. The Countryside Alliance had long felt the "doom and gloom" tales of rural decline, while true to an extent, did not accurately reflect the spirit of rural people and the efforts of thousands to keep their communities alive.
 The Countryside Alliance Awards were known as the Best Rural Retailer competition until 2007 This Best Rural Retailer competition, now the Countryside Alliance Awards, enables us to sing the praises of our unsung rural heroes through you. It is simple: you tell us who you want to nominate in which category and what makes your choice so special, and if you make your case passionately enough that person could be on their way to regional, or maybe even national, glory. The feelgood factor this competition has already generated is immense, and there is every hope that it will go from strength to strength. In 2005, 600 nominations were made; in 2006, 2,000; in 2007, 2,500 and in 2008 3,000.
The categories for the Awards are as follows:
1. The Grassroots Award for community campaigning Nominations closed in late October 2008 short-listing and judging then took place. The UK is split into 12 geographical regions for the purposes of this competition, and each picks a winner in each of the four categories. Click on "Judging and regional boundaries" to your left to read more about the judging structure and how to contact your judging panel. The regional judging panels then announce their winners - English regional and Welsh and Scottish national winners then go forward to the British final. Winners are chosen by a panel which is chaired by Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart. The national winners were announced at a reception at the House of Lords on 18th March 2009. |
