COULD Week St Mary be England's next top village? The community had the opportunity to get one step closer to this coveted position when it received a visit from the Calor Village of the Year England 2009/10 judges on Tuesday.

Week St Mary has already passed the county round with flying colours and now villagers will have the chance to show why their village is a potential national winner. It's up against a total of 36 other villages, all of which have been nominated to take part in Calor Village of the Year England through a network of county events throughout the country — Week St Mary is the current champion in the Calor Cornwall Village of the Year competition.

Judges will spend no more than two hours in Week St Mary, during which time villagers will be striving to showcase their community across four categories which cover Community — a better place to live, Business; a better place to work, Sustainability; a better future, and Communications, being in contact.

Calor Village of the Year manager Holly Sims said: "With the judges' visit coming up villagers are bound to be on tenterhooks, with everyone within the community gearing up to present Week St Mary as a real contender. I'd like to wish them the best of luck and look forward to hearing how they get on in October."

For judging purposes, Week St Mary is representing Cornwall in the West England region of the competition and will initially be competing against villages representing Devon, Somerset, Avon, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire and Worcestershire/Herefordshire in the first round of judging. The regional winners will be announced on October 20.

First prize in the Calor Village of the Year for England 2009/10 competition is £7,000 with £2,000 going to each of five regional winners. In addition, there are four category prizes of £500.

Judges were in Week St Mary on Tuesday during the morning. They were expected to spend a couple of hours there.