Countryside Alliance Ireland - love the countryside

The Countryside Alliance’s Best Rural Retailer competition is getting personal in 2008, with the addition of a new “Rural Hero” category.  The competition, now called the Countryside Alliance Awards, opens to nominations on Monday 1^st September.

The Best Rural Retailer competition ran for three years, received thousands of nominations and honoured hundreds of worthy winners. The addition of a “Rural Hero” category prompted a name change because the “Hero” need not be a retailer: a teacher; a gamekeeper; a Policeman; a rural journalist; a Hunt Master; a vet; a grandmother or even a youngster who is making a contribution to rural life – anyone is eligible for hero status. The Awards will accept nominations between 1^st September and 27^th October, across five categories:

1.        Local Food Award

2.        Village Shop/ Post Office Award

3.        Rural Enterprise Award

4.        Traditional Business Award

5.        Rural Hero of 2008 I

n another first, the Awards will also be inviting nominations for politicians who have shown a commitment to rural issues in the following categories:

1.        The Grassroots Award for community campaigning (open to Councillors, devolved bodies and the members of the UK and Irish Parliaments)

2.        The Westminster Award for bringing the countryside to Parliament

3.        The Rural Vision Award, for the politician with the countryside’s future at heart (open to Councillors, devolved bodies and members of the UK and Irish Parliaments) 

Lyall Plant, Chief Executive of Countryside Alliance Ireland, commented: “We are very proud to be rolling the Countryside Alliance Awards out across Ireland and look forward to honouring many deserving nominees this year.  “We are rewarding vision, enterprise and guile, but we are also rewarding old fashioned community values and the sort of spirit that many of the countryside’s detractors have written off. We want to show them that the countryside is one of our greatest assets, and its enterprising and passionate people are the reason why.”