Villages in Wiltshire competing to be this year’s CPRE Wiltshire and The Hills Group Best Kept Village in the county have found out if they have taken one step closer to the prize as the results of the first round of judging are announced.

This year’s competition started with 28 villages from around the county who were put under the microscope by the expert team of judges who are looking for criteria including tidiness, cleanliness, presentation and village community spirit.

One village, Castle Eaton, has been announced as this year’s ‘Best Newcomer’ and will receive a £150 cash prize.

“The parish councils and their volunteers had clearly been hard at work, achieving encouragingly high standards and making the judges’ task that much more difficult,” said Mike Manson from CPRE Wiltshire.

Each village is judged within the categories of ‘Small’, ‘Medium’ and ‘Large’ and in this first round they are only judged within their own district: West Wiltshire, North Wiltshire, South Wiltshire or Kennet (East Wiltshire).

The final results will be announced in August and on the 26th September the presentation to the winners will be made by the Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire and CPRE Wiltshire’s President, Mrs Sarah Troughton.

North Wiltshire and Swindon

Kennet

West Wiltshire

South Wiltshire

Hills Waste Solutions has relocated its Bristol operations to new premises off Severn Road, Hallen in Bristol.

Hills first set up a base in Bristol in 2016 with the acquisition of Able Waste Management Limited, when the area was identified as one of the top 20 growth areas in the country.

Neil Pollard, Divisional Director – Commercial, at Hills Waste Solutions, said: “Our depot in Bristol has provided an excellent platform to expand our general waste, recycling and food waste collection services in line with Hills’ existing activities.”

“After five years in the area we reached the point where a new, modern, purpose-built facility was essential to our growth plans and are pleased to have secured this depot with workshop facilities that are integral to maintaining our vehicles and increasing productivity.

The investment in the new depot and infrastructure confirms Hills’ commitment to long term development in Bristol, and providing advice and support to new and existing customers in the Bristol and Bath areas who are looking to manage their waste responsibly and sustainably.

CPRE Wiltshire and The Hills Group have just opened the 2021 Best Kept Village Competition to Parish Councils. “We’re very excited to be launching the Competition this year, as the 2020 Competition was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic, and are looking forward to some exciting new entries”, confirmed CPRE Wiltshire’s Branch Chair, Anne Henshaw.

Anyone in a village can pull the entry together and coordinate preparations for judging – it doesn’t have to be handled only by the parish council. All entrants need to submit is one form, a map and a short village report (this need not take long) and let the parish council know. Entries need to be in to CPRE Wiltshire no later than Monday 26th April.

Yet again, the main competition is being generously sponsored by The Hills Group and prizes of up to £200 are awarded. Princeton Homes are again sponsoring the Laurence Kitching “Winner of Winners” Award (£200).

“We encourage all villages to enter, irrespective of their size. The winners of the various sections receive great recognition and publicity for their efforts,” said Mike Hill, Chief Executive of The Hills Group.

If your village is looking good, why not consider speaking to your council and your friends and then entering? The judges consider presentation – tidiness, absence of litter and evidence of community spirit and involvement – but do not award marks for the beauty of buildings, otherwise the same villages might win every time! First round judging will take place from 17 th May to 13th June.

Government guidance has confirmed that waste management operations are of critical importance and that quarrying and construction activities are essential to keep the country operating.

I have called on all Hills’ employees to once again pull together as we face this next period of uncertainty and thank them all for their contribution to ensuring the company as a whole is able to work and operate safely and continue to deliver essential waste services, construction material and family homes to our customers and the wider public.

If we collectively heed Government guidance over the current period of national restrictions, along with the expanding vaccination programme, it will hopefully mean that we can look forward to an easing of restrictions and a start on a pathway back to normality

Hills remains firmly committed to providing a safe working environment for all employees, and all our operating sites are COVID-19 secure. Our Group board and management teams continue to meet regularly to ensure our business continuity plans remain adaptable to the latest changes being experienced whilst being mindful of long term resilience and potential future situations. Updates on each of our operational divisions can be found on the relevant websites at:

www.hills-waste.co.uk

www.hills-quarry.co.uk

www.hills-homes.co.uk

If you have any queries please contact us, and in the meantime, remain safe and take care.

As the ability to gather in groups on 11 November and the sale of Remembrance poppies has been significantly affected due to the current national restrictions, all Hills kerbside collection vehicles will be displaying a poster in support of this year’s poppy appeal and The Royal British Legion.

Mike Hill, chief executive at Hills said, “We usually have collection boxes and poppies at our offices and sites where employees and visitors can make donations, but this year we have not been able to do so. Our crews wanted to show their support for this worthy and important cause, and will be displaying the posters to raise awareness.”

In addition to its annual donation to The Royal British Legion, Hills has also given its employees the opportunity to increase the value of the donation by responding to an internal survey. Where operationally possible, all employees will be observing the 2 minute silence at 11.00 on 11 November.

As we enter a new period of national restrictions Hills’ priority remains to keep our employees, customers and the community in which we work safe. All our sites remain open and our operations will continue to trade in accordance with new Government guidance.

I would like to thank all our employees for adapting and following new ways of working that ensures the company as a whole is able to work and operate safely during this time and continue to deliver essential waste services, construction material and family homes to our customers and the wider public.

Hills operations have responded well to the challenges presented by the pandemic so far, and for that reason I am confident that we will continue to do so.

We must all follow the Government’s message on ‘hands, face, space’, and the importance of getting tested if experiencing the symptoms of Coronavirus. These measures, along with adhering to self-isolation requirements and social distancing laws will increase the likelihood of the national restrictions being lifted in early December as predicted.

Each Group Director, in consultation with the Group board, will consider their individual operations’ requirements for the coming weeks and implement changes to comply with Government guidelines to ensure a safe work place and to protect employees who are vulnerable to the risk of coronavirus Updates can be found on the relevant websites at:

•  www.hills-waste.co.uk
• www.hills-quarry.co.uk
• www.hills-homes.co.uk

Our Group board continues to meet regularly to ensure our business continuity plans remain adaptable to the latest changes being experienced whilst being mindful of long term resilience and potential future situations.

Hills Quarry Products is pleased to announce it is taking over the operation of an existing concrete plant in Gloucester. The plant was recently purchased from Chelmix Concrete Ltd.

Peter Andrew, Group director said: “Our new site at Gloucester will greatly expand the geographical area which Hills Quarry Products operates and also enhance the level of service we can provide to our customers with a mini-mix service now available from all our concrete plants.”

The site is being registered with the Quality Scheme for Ready-Mixed Concrete (QSRMC) and is providing high-quality concrete and screed, available for collection or delivery using 4m³, 6m³ and 8m³ sized vehicles

We look forward to supplying new and existing customers from the site

Neil Pollard has joined Hills Waste Solutions as divisional director for commercial operations. Reporting directly to Ed Dodd, Group director, Neil will lead in the profitable operation of Hills’ commercial waste collection operations and sales teams.

He will play a key role in Hills’ growth plans for collections and is part of Waste Solutions’ senior management team assisting in the management of the wider business, developing and implementing the associated strategy. Hills Waste Solutions offers a range of specialist waste management and recycling services to both the public and private sector. It is a dynamic regional business which, while centred on Wiltshire, has stretched its boundaries into neighbouring areas to become one of the region’s largest providers of waste solutions.

Neil holds a degree in Economics from Swansea University and has over 19 years’ experience in business development, operations and project management from his previous roles in the commercial and industrial waste management industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly changing our daily lives and causing significant disruption. This looks set to continue for some time, but this disruption is absolutely necessary if, together, we are to limit the spread and impact of this disease.

We wanted to take the opportunity to reassure everyone that, whatever else might happen, we’re working hard to ensure that your bins are still collected in the coming weeks and months. But, we need your help to do this.

There are around twenty-seven million households in the United Kingdom and, collectively, they produce the equivalent of a tonne of rubbish each, every year. Collecting, sorting, and processing the waste from this many households is a huge daily challenge and requires a workforce of more than 107,000 people, who have been identified by Government as key workers, providing support during this crisis.

For the time being, many household recycling and waste collections are operating normally and everyone should continue to reduce, re-use and recycle as much of their waste as possible. Your local council is ultimately responsible for recycling and waste services, so please follow all of the guidance they provide so that we can keep these vital services moving efficiently.

Following Government advice, to protect workers and combat the spread of infection, anyone who feels ill at home (whether diagnosed with COVID-19 or not) should place all their waste in the general rubbish bin, and should doublebag it, making sure the bags are securely tied. They should then wait at least 72 hours before placing it out for collection. For now, this material should not be put in your recycling.

Like other critical industries, staff shortages may interfere with recycling and waste services, so we are doing all we can to mitigate this risk. To ensure we can continue to collect general rubbish, which must be prioritised for hygiene reasons, it might be necessary to temporarily change or suspend some non-essential collection services like garden and bulky waste. Any disruption to recycling services will be a last resort and, if this is unavoidable, we must not allow it to break our national recycling habit in the long term.

Some Household Waste Recycling Centres will be temporarily closed to the general public and, unless essential, people should not be leaving their homes to visit these sites. It is possible that some street cleaning and litter removal services may also need to be temporarily suspended to prioritise household collections.

We are grateful for your support at this time of unprecedented challenge and urge you to stay safe, protect yourself and protect others.

Thank you.