The Best Rural Retailer competition is a Countryside Alliance initiative. First conceived of in 2005, it was 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.
This competition enables us to sing the praises of our unsung heroes - our retailers - through you, their customers. It is simple: you tell us who you want to nominate and what makes your retailer so special, and if you make your case passionately enough that retailer could be on their way to national recognition. 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.
The categories are:
Best Local Food Retailer
Best Village Shop/ Post Office
Best Diversification
Daily Telegraph Best Traditional Business
Nominating in more than one category is allowed. Once you have made your nomination, your retailer will receive a letter saying "You have been nominated" and you, as nominator, will be entered into a prize draw and could win four tickets to a Countryside Raceday near you.
Once nominations close short-listing and regional judging then takes place. A new short-listing technique will begin during the 2007 competition whereby short-listed retailers will be sent a questionnaire. The questionnaire will ask each retailer about their business, their motivation and their community, and if they impress our regional judges they will earn a visit from a regional judging panel representative, with a view to being declared the regional winner.
The UK and Northern Ireland have been split into 13 regions for the purposes of this competition, with each region picking a winner in each of the four categories. The regions are split along the Countryside Alliance's Regional Director structure. Click on "Our regions" to your left to read more about the regional structure and how to contact your Regional Director, who leads your regional judging panel. Your Regional Director will be able to tell you who else is sitting on your regional judging panel.
Four overall national winners are then judged by a national judging panel (click on "The National Judging Panel" to learn more about them).
The national winners are then announced at a reception at the House of Lords. The 2006 competition was held at the House of Lords on 7th February 2007. |
