Our ‘Inspiration Awards’ are being run for the benefit of ALL RURAL village halls in the UK, large or small, rich or poor, connected to large social networks or serving tiny communities. So, the following rules are intended to make the awards as fair as possible.

We encourage ALL rural halls to enter. It’s all about community spirit.

1. Applicants must be from within the UK, in UK villages, and the village shown must be specified in the entry form. See below for definition of ‘village’.

2. Prizes:

Three prizes awarded – 3rd prize of £1,000, 2nd prize of £1,500 and 1st prize of £2,500. Prizes awarded according to our judging panel. Multiple entries from halls are allowed.

3. Entry Details: When entering you must supply/confirm the following:
• Your full name and a valid email address so we can contact you.
• The name of the nominated village hall which will receive its prize if you win. The hall must be a legitimate village hall (or community / memorial hall) within a UK village community as defined in Clause 12 below and you must have the hall’s permission to nominate it. If you win, we will ask for contact details for the hall so that funds can be sent directly to the treasurer or chairperson.
• The name of the village, together with county/region.
• In no more than 600 words, the reason why your village, chuch or community hall should win an award.

4. Entry Fee: There is no entry fee. No purchase is necessary.

5. Final Dates: Entries close 5pm on Friday  17/11/2023.

6. Late Entries: Entries submitted after the final entry date will not be included in the judging. We will not be held responsible for any delays or submission failures caused by problems with uploading images on The Village Halls Podcast website.

7. Entry Limits: You and your Village/Village Hall may enter as many times as you wish.

8. Location: Only UK villages are eligible.

9. Residence: Entrants and voters must be UK resident.

10. Age: Entrants under the age of 18 must have parental consent.

11. Judging: After the closing date, winners will be selected by a judging panel.

12. Definition of Village: For the purpose of the ‘Village Hall Inspiration Awards’, the definition of ‘village’ will be ‘village’ or ‘hamlet’ as in the following:
• For England and Wales the Rural/Urban Definition was introduced in 2004 as a joint project between a number of Government Departments and was delivered by the Rural Evidence Research Centre at Birkbeck College (RERC).The Definition adopts a settlement-based approach, comprising four settlement types, of which three are rural:
• Urban (population over 10,000) – NOT ACCEPTABLE
• Town and Fringe – NOT ACCEPTABLE
• Village – ACCEPTABLE
• Hamlet and Isolated Dwellings – ACCEPTABLE (assuming there is a ‘community’).
• In Scotland, we will follow the same approach as defined by the Scottish Executive, and for Northern Ireland we refer to NISRA (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency).
The ‘Wonderful Villages Awards’ have been created to support halls in rural areas. In the event of any ambiguity, Allied Westminster reserves the right to determine the definition of ‘village’ and accept or decline any entries accordingly.

13. Notification of Winners: The winners and their nominated village halls will receive notification (by email, post, or telephone call) within a four-week period following the final entry date. Prizes will then be sent within two weeks following successful notification. Neither us or our sponsors will not be held responsible for any delays in the notification or transmission of prizes due to problems with postal or email services.

14. No Contact: In the event of us being unable to contact the winners and their nominated village halls after a reasonable number of attempts, or if incorrect information has been entered into the entry forms which results in us becoming unable to contact you, or the village hall you nominated, your position will be given to another entrant. Neither we nor our sponsors can be held responsible for any consequences that occur as a result of incorrect information on the entry form.

15. Privacy: More details of our privacy policy are available here: https://thevillagehallspodcast.com/privacy-policy/

16. Administration: This competition is administered by Thomson Media Ltd and will be administered in compliance with the laws that govern prize competitions in the United Kingdom.

17. Right to Amend: Under exceptional circumstances, and if we believe it to be necessary, we reserve the right to add, cancel or alter any rules of the competition at any time, in the interest of the participants and without prior notification.

18. Restrictions on Entry: Thomson Media Ltd and Allied Westminster employees and their family members will not be eligible to enter this competition.

19. By entering the competition, you are accepting the Terms & Conditions set for this competition by us.

20. You should also refer to the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions of this website (in the footer), which also apply in full to the rules of these Awards.