I am very pleased to announce that Great Waltham village has won the Best Kept Village Competition 2008 and in addition has won Best Green Village of the year Competition.

The Best Kept Village Competition prize is a cheque for £150 plus a certificate, a plaque and a sign to be erected in the village which is kept for the year (or who knows if we do the same next year we can keep the sign for a further year.

The purpose of the competition is to reward evidence of community pride and to encourage proper care for the focal points of the village. It seems that Great Waltham villagers are sufficiently proud of their surroundings and this has been reflected in the Judges scoring and comments.  A comment was made in particular regarding the village school and how this appeared to be neat, tidy and with happy and well behaved children.  Well done Great Waltham School pupils and staff for helping the village to win.  Also thanks to all those residents who I see collecting and disposing of any litter which they come across.  Many thanks – well done – please continue to keep our village tidy.

We also won the Best Green Village Competition.  The village is awarded a certificate, vouchers for £50 to purchase a tree and a plaque to place by the tree. Any ideas for planting would be welcomed.

The competition was based on environmental issues in the village.  Great Waltham was able to display, fully allocated allotments producing a wide range of food, an allotment shed selling organic products to villagers, the village shop stocks local goods, and discourages the use of plastic bags.  Villagers are encouraged to shop locally through information on the Parish Website.  The use of cycles is encouraged to school and shops and the Parish Council intends to raise the long outstanding issue of a cycleway from Great Waltham to Broomfield Hospital and Chelmer Valley High School using public rights of way once again.  The school uses local food for school meals and pupils even produce some vegetables in its own school garden.  The village hall is double glazed.  There are many small ways in which Great Waltham is involved in ‘Green Issues’ and we are encouraged that this has been recognised by the award.  The Parish Council have appointed themselves as ‘energy champions’ and will continue to look at ways in which the local environment can be improved.

Finally a big thank you to all of those villagers who got involved in the presentations given to the judges of the competitions and all of those who continue keeping our village tidy, and litter free and our gardens looking so beautiful and a special thank you to Brian Ager our Parish handyman whose work makes our surroundings so much better.

Thank you to you all.