East of England Action for Market Towns 2012 Award winners named
By Katie Fewings • May 1st, 2012 • Category: Awards, Insight May 2012, NewsPress release, 2 May 2012
Wells pirate festival, Ware’s Heritage Trail, a food and drink festival in Swaffham and ‘Where’s Rudolph?’ all receive accolades.
Four projects have beaten off competition from towns across the east of England to win recognition for their efforts to nurture thriving communities.
The winners for the East of England region of this year’s Action for Market Town awards have been announced:
- Business and Economy Category Winner: Brecks Food & Drink Festival – Swaffham
- Environment and Culture Category Winner: Ware Heritage Trail
- Partnership and Strategic Working Category Winner: Where’s Rudolph – Saxmundham, Leiston & Aldeburgh
- Social and Community Category and EAST ZONE WINNER: Pirate Festival – Wells Next the Sea
Click on the links above to view profiles of each of the winners, photographs, and comments from Awards judges.
A further entrant was commended by the judges: The Swaffham Business Forum
The winning projects go forward to be considered for Action for Market Towns’ prestigious National Award. National winners will be announced by historian and television presenter David Starkey in October at a ceremony in Kendal.
Last year’s winners received widespread press exposure and several were even held up as exemplary projects in a Parliamentary reception.
Chris Wade, the chief executive of AMT said:
“The quality and quantity of our entries shows that innovation and creativity is at the heart of many towns across the east of England. This years’ entries really raised the bar – giving judges a difficult task – and the regional winners should be congratulated for the positive effects their projects are having in their communities.
“The Action for Market Towns Awards celebrate these innovative projects and share good ideas allowing other towns across the UK to learn from our winners’ experiences.
“We are grateful to The Big Lottery Fund for their continued support for the Awards, and to specialist ethical fund manager CCLA whose sponsorship has enabled us to extend the awards to Wales and Scotland. Delivery of the awards scheme is also supported by local partners Scottish Small Towns Group and The Welsh Government.”
Background to awards:
Action for Market Towns founded its awards scheme in 2004 to recognise and showcase initiatives that are helping our small market towns to adapt to change and flourish.
For the awards, the presence of a ‘market’ is not the determining feature – more important is the relationship between the town and its hinterland. Towns eligible to enter the awards have a population of between 2,000 and 35,000, offer at least convenience shopping and meet some weekly and specialist needs.
The Action for Market Towns National Awards are supported by the Big Lottery Fund and sponsored by specialist ethical fund manager CCLA.
If you need any information about the awards, please contact: Anne Buchanan on 01633 411732 or email, awards@towns.org.uk. Further press information is available by emailing news@towns.org.uk
Notes to editors:
1. Action for Market Towns (AMT) is a national charity committed to the vitality and viability of our small towns.
2. It offers training, consultancy, national advocacy and a range of other services to more than 400 members.
3. The awards are part funded by the Big Lottery Fund and sponsored by ethical fund manager CCLA.
Where next?
Katie Fewings is Katie graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2000 with a BA in Modern Languages (French, Spanish & Portuguese).
She honed her organisational skills over nearly four years as PA to the Director of an internationally renowned firm of architects in London before moving to Brighton and taking up the post of Project Manager at the online ethical travel directory, responsibletravel.com. In this role, she organised the annual Responsible Tourism Awards with partners World Travel Market, The Telegraph, Geographical Magazine and BBC World News, and facilitated a programme to develop and support community based tourism with the Washington NGO, Conservation International.
Katie has a strong interest in issues of sustainability and social responsibility, and has set up her own website, Ethical Weddings (www.ethicalweddings.com) to help couples plan the wedding of their dreams without compromising their values. She also co-founded Our Ethical Network in Brighton to give ethically motivated businesses in the city the chance to meet one another, share common problems and explore business opportunities.
Katie is developing AMT's online presence and helping towns to share knowledge and best practice from their successful initiatives through online networking in the new AMT Forums and other social media.
She works Tuesdays and Thursdays and can be contacted on 07876 701 266 or by email at katie.fewings@towns.org.uk.
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