THE bustling rural village of Tarporley topped the table in this year’s Community Spirit award competition.

Representatives from villages and towns from across the county gathered in Nantwich for the 54th Community Pride Competition.

The Overall Award for the second year in succession was presented to Nantwich as best kept village/market town.

Edward Brady of Shell UK, sponsor of the competition presented a plaque and cheque. He gave a personal account of the 11 years Shell UK has supported the competition and stressed one of the reasons Shell backed it was due to the important work done by local communities volunteering to keep and care for their local environment.

The Cheshire Community Spirit award was presented to Tarporley. Highly commended were Helsby, Kelsall, Tilston and Willaston on the Wirral.

The judges said: “Tarporley was a worthy winner with its many active societies and groups. It has an active community who all work hard to make their village an attractive place to live.”

Disley won the Community Safety Award, which is sponsored by Cheshire Constabulary.

Michael Trevor Barnston MBE JP DL was the speaker for the evening. He talked about the great county of Cheshire and how we forget the many outstanding features it has both historically, geographically and commercially. We should not take it for granted but continue to cherish and support it, he said.

This year 30 villages received the new award called Little Gem. This has been created to support the work of volunteers or individuals who all look after their environment.

Two new competitions were set up this year – The Best Village website, won by Audlem, and the Best Community Newsletter, won by Rainow.