THE Memorial Hall in Ramsbury is the best village hall in Wiltshire when it comes to community involvement, competition judges have decided.

The Wiltshire Village Halls Association which is part of Community First has run the competition to find the best cared for and managed village hall in Wiltshire.

Overall first place went to the Coombe Bissett and Homington Village Hall near Salisbury. That also took the award for general management.

However the certificate for the best community involvement went to Ramsbury's very well used Memorial Hall, the hub of activities in the village.

The award for the best future projects and plans went to Erlestoke Village Hall and the award for the best maintenance went to the Jubilee Hall at Bratton near Westbury.

Certificates of excellence were also awarded to Colerne Village Hall for general management; Ashton Keynes and Holt Village Hall for community involvement; Lydiard Millicent Village Hall for future projects and plans; Marden Village Hall and Westbury Leigh Community Centre shared the certificate for their standards of maintenance.

The results were announced at a special ceremony held at Ramsbury Memorial Hall on Wednesday, December 3.

The Memorial Hall was the outright winner when the contest was last held three years ago in the Millennium year.

The awards were presented by Coun Judy Seager, deputy leader of Wiltshire County Council, assisted by Grant Rogers, network support manager of Transco which sponsored the contest.

The village hall competition was renamed to celebrate the Millennium and redesigned to take into account the

management of hall and the facilities it offers for the benefit of the local communities.

During the autumn a team of three judges from the Village Halls Association together with a county or district council representative, carried out the inspection of the halls.

The overall winner received £1,000 and there were awards of £300 for the section winners.

Memorial Hall trustees' chairman Robert Osmond said the award for community involvement was well deserved because the Ramsbury hall was extremely well used.

He said: "It is in use almost every day and right through the day.

"There is something going on in there virtually all the time and it is used by people of all ages from the toddler group upwards."

The award for the Ramsbury hall was all the more sweet because it had been forced to close in 1987 because parts of it were found to be unsafe.

The village mounted a huge rescue operation but it took nine years to get the hall restored and open again.

Mr Osmond said: "Today there is widespread support for the hall.

"The trustees are made up of representatives from most of the village bodies."