Our ‘Wonderful Villages’ photo competition is 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 competition as fair as possible.

We encourage ALL rural halls to enter, so whether you’re a snap-happy amateur with a smartphone or a professional with a Leica, it’s all about community spirit and content.

1. Theme: ‘Wonderful Villages – A sense of village life and community spirit’  – a photo which characterises the value of community in your village’. Photos must have been taken from within the UK, in UK villages, and the village shown must be specified in the entry form. See below for definition of ‘village’. So, to qualify for judging, an eligible photo must be taken in a UK village and show content which encapsulates the value of community in that village. It’s not our role to be prescriptive but landscapes, nature shots, architectural shots, and photos without identifiable people doing identifiable things are unlikely to qualify, although each photo will be assessed on its merits. Judges will be looking for photos that encapsulate ‘a sense of village life and community spirit.’ Although not mandatory, judges are likely to be impressed by content which emphasises the vital contribution which village halls make to the sense of community within villages.

2. Prizes:

1st Prize – £1,000 for your village hall and £500 for the photographer
2nd prize – £500 for your village hall and £250 for the photographer
3rd prize – £250 for your village hall and £125 for the photographer
4th prize – £100 for your village hall and £50 for the photographer
5th prize – £50 for your village hall and £25 for the photographer

3. Entry Details: When submitting your photo, you must supply/confirm the following:
• Your full name and a valid email address so we can contact you. If you are not the photographer, you may supply their name separately.
• 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 photographer’s own prize will be awarded once the village hall has confirmed receipt of its prize. Your nominated village hall does not have to be within the same village as shown in the photo.
• The name of the village shown in the photo, together with county/region.
• A short description of the content of the photo.
4. Entry Fee: There is no entry fee. No purchase is necessary.
5. Final Dates: Last photo entry – midnight 21/11/2021.
6. Late Entries: Entries submitted after last photo 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 and Voting: To keep things as fair as possible, and to not prejudice late entries and small communities, judging will take place on the following basis:
• Judging: After the closing date, ten photos will be placed before the judging panel. These ten photos will consist of the following:
i. Five qualifying photos selected on merit.
ii. Five qualifying photos selected completely at random
• The judges will then select the five best photos to which the prizes stated in 2. above will be awarded.

12. Definition of Village: For the purpose of this ‘Wonderful Villages’ competition, 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’ competition has been created to support halls in rural areas. If you are unsure whether either your photo or nominated hall is in a ‘village’ according to the above definition, submit your entry for consideration using the normal entry form. 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. Photography Laws: All entries must abide by the photography laws of the UK and have appropriate permissions, especially if a model under 18 years of age is used. A general guide is available here: https://www.blpawards.org/competition/photo-rights

14. Ownership: All entries must be the original work of the entrant. Entrants will retain copyright in the photographs that they upload to the ‘Wonderful Villages’ competition. By entering the competition all entrants grant to us the right to publish and exhibit their photographs on The Village Halls Podcast website and social media pages, as well as any websites and social media pages owned by Allied Westminster, as well as in print, or in any other media. No fees will be payable for any of the above uses. Entrants also agree to allow their images to be used in any post-competition publicity. While we make every effort to credit photographers, including in printed reproductions of their work, we cannot guarantee that every use of the photographs will include the photographers’ names. Entrants must ensure that the photograph is not used to publicise or promote companies, individuals, organisations or causes other than The Village Halls Podcast, Allied Westminster and the winning photographers themselves.

15. Copyright Infringement: If any form of copyright infringement is brought to our attention, we will remove the relevant image(s) immediately.

16. Exclusions: Photos submitted must not have won, or been commended, in other competitions.

17. Digital Enhancement: Digital photo enhancement is only accepted if:
• Image has had blemishes, scratches and or spots removed .
• Colour in the image has had minor enhancement for the sake of accurate portrayal.
• Image has been cropped.
• Entire image has been rotated.
• Entire image has been flipped vertically or horizontally.
We will not accept composite images. A composite image is an image that has been created from the combination of two or more images or their separate elements.

18. Right to Exclude: We reserve the right to exclude any images they believe may have been excessively treated so as to alter their authenticity, or which are not appropriate for public display. This extends to any text entered with the image (on the image itself, as part of the description, or any other information entered with the submitted photo).

19. Professional Photographers: Entrants cannot be professional photographers who derive more than 50% of their annual income earned from photography, unless they are resident in the village which contains the village hall that they nominate to receive a cash prize.

20. Notification of Winners: The winner, runners-up and their nominated village halls will receive notification (by email, post, or telephone call) within the two-week period following the last voting 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.

21. No Contact: In the event of us being unable to contact the winner, runners-up 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 in the competition will be given to the entrant next in line, all lower winners will move up and a new entry will be awarded 5th place. Neither we nor our sponsors can be held responsible for any consequences that occur as a result of incorrect information on the entry form.

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

23. 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.

24. 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.

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

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

27. 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 this photo competition.