A CROWD of Cricklade residents turned out for the annual town meeting and the presentation of a series of awards for the town last night.

Community groups including representatives from the town hall, Cricklade Festival, the Royal British Legion and the chamber of commerce to name but a few gave talks at the event detailing what they had been up to during the year and what help they might need in the future.

This year’s meeting also included the first annual Cricklade photography competition, decided by votes at the meeting, which was won by Jake Turner.

Due to the success of the competition the town council hopes to hold it again every year with entrants able to send their entries every three months rather than in a rush before the annual meeting.

The winners of this year’s short story competition titled ‘There’s no such thing as a dog poo fairy’ were Erin Hindley in the under 15s category and Laura Mulcock in the adult category.

Next came the town council’s Cricklade Community Awards which were awarded for Young Person of the Year, Community Group of the Year and the Cricklade Community Award.

Young Person of the Year was awarded to Polly Whinfrey, who was nominated for her work with charities and for running several classes for young people at Cricklade Leisure Centre.

Polly thanked the people who nominated and supported her but also revealed that she would soon be leaving Cricklade for several months as a volunteer in the United States.

She added: “It’s going to be a shame to say goodbye to Cricklade for so many months as I’m going to miss everyone. Thank you.”

Community Group of the Year was awarded to the team of organisers behind the Cricklade Festival and accepted by chairman of the group Nigel Wynne.

He thanked his team for putting doing “50 plus hard meetings in the pub almost every week” and revealed that this year’s festival would go ahead on June 21.

He said: “We do it for the community and we feel that the community takes a big part in what we do as well.”

Finally the Cricklade Community Award was given to Kate Crow for more than a decade of chairing the Jenner Hall and working towards its refurbishment.

She said she was astounded and very grateful to be given the award.

She added: “Cricklade is an amazing community. It’s always worth doing things for the Cricklade community because they appreciate the things that have been done.”