Gretton announced as Gloucestershire's Village of the Year!

Every year, Gloucestershire Rural Community Council (GRCC) runs a competition for the county's Village of the Year. The results were announced at a ceremony at Highnam Court on Thursday 16 July.

GRCC said: 

"Our overall winner, Grettton, impressed the judges with a strong performance across the board, taking a proactive, solution-focused approach towards supporting health, wellbeing, social interaction, intergenerational connection, environmental action, volunteering, and use of digital technology to bring everything together. The community hub was established to reduce isolation amongst the older population; a WhatsApp help group and skills-sharing of professional expertise and practical trades supports others within the community; the village hall is a visible and effective demonstrator site for low carbon technologies; the Village Association has been rebuilt from a team with little support to an oversubscribed committee and a helpers group of around 35 to help with events and tasks. There are areas of rewilding, time dedicated to footpath maintenance, including replacing a footbridge over a stream to make it more accessible, recommended walking routes on the website and noticeboards, and fruit trees planted in the playing field, which is also host to a small Forest School. 

On top of this, the judges were impressed by the strong culture of participation and share responsibility in evidence on their visit, along with practical plans for further development in all category areas, including for a new activity space at the rear of the Village Hall, an online historical archive, and introducing recycling facilities for batteries and a clothing bank."

We extend our congratulations to the village for this great achievement and wish them the best of luck in their use of the prize money.