A WEST Devon village is celebrating success in its first entry into the Devon Best Kept Village competition, after being declared runner-up in the new entries section. Mary Tavy was just pipped to the post by Rackenford, out of an entry of eleven. Both villages were the only ones in their category to achieve a score of more than 90 out of 100. Mary Tavy parish council vice-chairman Anita Prosser said said it was ?rather nice? to be runner-up. ?We thought it would be great to enter. We are dissected by the A386 and do have our problems keeping together as a village, but I think the judges looked at the village as a whole and thought how well we did keeping it tidy and litter-free,? she said. The area by the war memorial, which is looked after by the local WI and planted with flowers and bushes, had a particular mention by the judges. ?Everyone looks at us and thinks of us as a non-village, but we are a good community pulling together. ?We must have ticked nearly all the boxes to get the marks we did,? Mrs Prosser said. She added that people had been slightly sceptical when the signs had first gone up saying they had entered the competition, but she hoped they would enter again next year, when hopefully a planned redevelopment of the garage site in the centre of Mary Tavy might by under way, to improve the village even more. Event organiser Rosalyn Kriteman from the Council for the Preservation of Rural England said more villages than ever had entered this year?s competition. ?The standard has been exceptionally high. As always, the judges have put a vast amount of time and effort into the competition. ?Every village is judged at least once, many twice and some up to three times. ?They are not looking for beauty or fine architecture but simply looking for ?best kept? villages,? Ms Kriteman said.
