VILLAGERS in Coppull are celebrating after their home landed a top award last week.

The prestigious Lancashire Best Kept Village competition named Coppull as the county's most improved large village.

Ken Ball, chairman of Coppull Parish Council, said: "Improvements this year include keeping on top of grasscutting, our hanging baskets have come out very well and people have started to use the litter bins we provide."

He added: "We won this competition six or seven years ago and we have been trying to improve on that standard ever since."

The next target for the village is the overall award. Despite coming third this year, Councillor Ball added: "We are up against it, as we have 8,000 residents and we are up against villages which are much less busy."

The award will be presented by chief judge, Lancashire trading standards officer Jim Potts at Barton Village Hall on Saturday October 16.

An extra bonus for Coppull came in the form of a runners up prize for the Springfield nursing home in the best residential nursing home category.

Coppull isn't the only local village with something to celebrate. Eccleston won the award for the best kept notice board while nearby Wheelton won the Lancashire Regiments Cup for the best kept war memorial.

Eccleston's Boundary Close came second in the best kept Alms Houses, Senior Citizens and Sheltered Accommodation category.

In the North West heats of the Britain in Bloom contest, meanwhile, Croston was awarded Best Small Country Town.

The competition, backed by the Tidy Britain group saw Croston narrowly beaten by Garstang.

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