Calor Scottish Community of the Year Awards

Iomairt Nis has been highly commended in the Community Enhancement through the Internet category of the Calor Scottish Community of the Year Awards 2004, at a ceremony held in Edinburgh last Friday.         Representing Ness were Hugh MacInnes, the Iomairt Nis chairman, who also produced the website, and Suzanne Morrison from Lionel, a third year student in Glasgow who worked on placement with Iomairt Nis earlier this summer.  They were presented with a plaque and a certificate at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), which was attended by HRH The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay.  Former Runrig frontman Donnie Munro also presented awards to the winners.

L to R: Suzanne Morrison, Donnie Munro, Hugh MacInnes and Alex Davis, Director Calor Scotland

The website which had been submitted as a joint bid by Iomairt Nis and Ness Community Council, narrowly missed the main prize won by Kinloss and Findhorn Community Web Association.  Gareloch & Rosneath Community Website was ‘commended’, picking up third spot.
        Commenting on the Community of the Year event, Hugh MacInnes said: “I am very pleased that the Iomairt Nis website has received this award, which recognises some of the magnificent work being done in our community.  The Iomairt Nis website highlights some of the superb community projects currently being carried out in Ness and illustrates the hard work and dedication of those who strive to improve amenities and services in our area.”

One of the judges, Dr Douglas Cruickshank, of The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, commenting on the websites said: “The six finalists all demonstrated real community focus. Although sites need to be easy to navigate we are not looking for clever design, the emphasis of this award is firmly on how communities use the Internet to help improve local communication and promote community life.
 “The Internet is having a profound effect on how we locate information and a remarkable number of Scottish communities are now capitalising upon the opportunities it has to promote inclusion and provide a focal point for local communication. The Iomairt Nis site is a prime example of how a community can make the Internet work for its benefit”.
        The overall title of Calor Scottish Community of the Year 2004 was awarded to Isle of Whithorn Community Council. The Isle of Whithorn coastal community, in South-West Scotland, was hit by a fishing boat tragedy in January 2000 when the Solway Harvester went down off the Isle of Man with the loss of seven local lives.  The following year the area was one of the regions most affected by the foot-and-mouth cattle disease.
        Presenting the awards, The Prince said: “It typifies a story of recovery - of demonstrating how in this case a community could bounce back from the grief of the Solway Harvester tragedy and the nightmare of the foot-and-mouth epidemic, and go on to thrive in the face of almost overwhelming difficulty.”
        His Royal Highness praised the community’s efforts in encouraging businesses and went on: “The knowledge sharing, training and support offered to new businesses in the Isle of Whithorn should help ensure a community which can trace its roots back 1600 years will still be around for future generations.”
        In his speech at the awards ceremony, The Prince said creating communities from new developments was a major challenge and went on to talk about Poundbury, an urban extension on Duchy of Cornwall land that has been built according to the principles set out in The Prince’s book, A Vision of Britain.
        Having touched on the “uglification” of our towns and communities by unsympathetic development, The Prince said of Poundbury, on the western edge of Dorchester in Dorset, that the “essential ingredient”, after a four-day planning exercise with local people, had been to put the pedestrian and not the car at the centre of the design process.
        “The result has been a liveable community with no need for retro-fitted traffic calming measures,” he said.
        Other ingredients were using the local identity in design features, to create “a sense of space and belonging,” as well as ensuring all utilities, such as gas and electricity, are carried in the same underground channels, which minimises disruption during repairs or upgrades.
        “As a result, streets become part of the public realm once again and walking becomes a pleasure,” said The Prince.
        A further measure was to create a heart for the community - a public Square which contained a community hall, the first public building to be built in Dorchester for 120 years.
        His Royal Highness said: “Nothing humanity creates is ever perfect, but we have tried to show how a rediscovery of time-tested principles can help create a more genuinely sustainable community where people can live and work in the same place.”
        The Calor Scottish Community of the Year Awards were launched in 1998, and since then more than one third of all Scottish communities from the Borders to Shetland, and all the country’s major urban areas have taken part.
        Commenting on her day at the Oscar style awards Suzanne said: “It went very well indeed and we really enjoyed it. I saw a few television personalities there as well – one from Beechgrove Gardens was sitting beside usand  a Grampian TV presenter was sitting opposite us.  Hugh, however, got Prince Charles sitting at his table for a few minutes so that beats us!”

Calor Scottish Community of the Year Website