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Gnosall Parish Logo (Image) 

Gnosall Parish Council           

 (Including the wards of Moreton and Knightley)                                   

 

Dementia Friends Logo (Image)

Best Kept Village Competition 2017

Jenny Clarke, Dave Clarke, Joy MacMichael and Ian MacMichael, at the  BKV awards presentation evening (Image)

We were delighted to be awarded first place in the Stafford District and placed County Winners in the large village category.  There has been a great community effort since March to clear the village of its winter debris and then to commence with new projects for 2017 as well as continuing the good work from previous years in making Gnosall sparkle with flower beds, hanging baskets, bunting, no litter and no dog mess.

Villagers are proud, and often say so, to live in a cared for environment, they enjoy the lack of litter and dog mess and many are engaged actively in BKV work.  Other community groups have got more involved this year including the Scouts, Phoenix Group (over 50’s), Threads Sewing Group, Jam Busters (WI), the local primary school, the local youth club, the parish council and every business with a property in the village was invited to take part in the BKV campaign - and they did.  The Threads Sewing Group made colourful bunting complemented the High Street during the spring and summer months that made the village look and feel summery and cheerful for many months and complimented the GFest events during July superbly.

This year there was a new Project to work on improving the canal environment, clearing and improving a long stretch of the towpath to make it more accessible all of the time.   The BKV team also increased its areas of responsibility by maintaining every bench and notice board in the village (20+ benches and 6 notice boards). Another brand new project this year was to fund raise to build a new village welcome sign/flower planter – this project cost £2500 and funds were raised with generous donations from local businesses and a donation from Linden Homes who are developing a site in the village.  This sign will be a welcome sight for people as they enter the village and will give residents a daily reminder of the village’s successes in the BKV competition.   Keeping play areas and green areas safe and litter free is a year round aim of the BKV volunteers who carry out daily litter picks no matter what the weather brings.  The team created and maintained new flower beds too.  All primary school children are asked to think about caring for the environment and produce posters for display.

The judges’ comments, received in September, were very complimentary about the work of the BKV team in 2017 and said “it was a pleasure to visit Gnosall and the village buzzes with BKV and there seems to be real pride in the village”.  They went on to recognise that “this year the sustained hard work which was put in before and during the competition was rewarded by first place in the large village category in the Stafford area and best large village in the whole of Staffordshire”.

The success of the BKV team led to Channel 4 coming to Gnosall to film the village for a new Channel 4 programme called Village of the Year that will be broadcast in October   Filming featured the canal and a number of local groups.

 

The Best Kept Village Team of volunteers (Image)