WHEN it comes to building community life, they do it best in Salford Priors.

The village has just scooped a special award and £500 prize after being voted 2005 Warwickshire Village of the Year.

In addition, it was also placed second in the Best Kept Large Village category.

The competitions are run by Warwickshire Rural Community Council, with sponsorship from Calor, the UK's leading supplier of liquefied petroleum gas. This year, thanks to additional sponsorship from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, there was a special prize for the Building Community Life category.

Competition organiser Jenny Cranfield said: "Once again the competitions have been a great success and Warwickshire's villages have proved themselves to be caring communities full of motivated and enthusiastic people.

"The competition judges have also done a wonderful job and I would like to thank them for their support and dedication.

"I am very much looking forward to the presentation ceremonies when the winning villages and churches will have a chance to celebrate their success."

As the county's Village of the Year, Salford Priors has been nominated to represent the county in the prestigious national Calor Village of the Year competition. It will be competing in the Central England region of the competition.