AMT Public

The winner of the prestigious National Market Town Awards 2009 is an innovative eco-project in Faringdon, Oxfordshire. The winner was announced on 13 October at the Action for Market Towns Convention in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.

ECOWEEK was a project aimed at moving Faringdon to a smaller and more sustainable footprint. 2,300 people enjoyed 33 separate low-carbon events, from visits to hi-tech plasma waste facilities to tours of low-tech allotments. The local community ate ecoburgers, cycled into the summer solstice, and even broke a world record for hugging a wind turbine along the way! ECOWEEK involved the whole community – from birdwatchers right through to bread-baking watermill lovers.

The project made good use of new media for awareness and publicity, including a detailed www.ecoweek.info website, blogs, forums, email distribution lists, viral marketing, Google Adwords campaign and links to a digital magazine. ECOWEEK 2010 is already being planned.

“a multi-faceted project which motivated and involved the whole community”

ECOWEEK first won the South East regional heats of the Market Town Awards. They then went head-to-head with seven other regional winners at the Action for Market Towns Convention. Announcing the winner, the judges said they felt it was ‘a multi-faceted project which motivated and involved the whole community’ and that the Faringdon team deserved national recognition for all their hard work and positive outcomes.

The National Market Town Awards are run by Action for Market Towns and each year celebrate the great variety of volunteer-led projects that are helping to regenerate and sustain small towns throughout the country.

The Awards were presented by Catherine Hammant, Chairman of Action for Market Towns, and Lorraine Connolly, Head of the Community Newswire at the Press Association. The Press Association is media partner of the Market Town Awards.