Broadway, Worcestershire, has won the Communications category for the West England region of the 2008 Calor Village of the Year® award. The enthusiastic and community spirited Cotswold village of Broadway has approximately 2,500 residents and is situated to the south east of Evesham in Worcestershire. Broadway has ancient origins and is over 1,000 years old. Residents are very proud of their history and are keen to preserve it for future generations, taking responsibility for their heritage village and managing it effectively.

Particular care of the community was shown during recent flooding and plans to minimise a similar occurrence in the future through well-researched and strategic emergency measures should be applauded. While the village’s history and heritage is a great asset, an even greater asset in Broadway is its people. The community is made up of a diverse mix of characters; however, what they have in common is the desire to work together in order to benefit everyone. A great example of this is local vicar and his volunteers who opened the church on the night of the July 2007 floods to care for visitors to the village who had been stranded.

Communications in Broadway is managed extremely effectively. The Broadway Communication Group, which was started by a group of volunteers, acts as a focal point for good communications and initiated the village’s newsletter and website.

One outstanding project in the village in relation to communications is ‘Signpost’, which was started, again by volunteers, to ensure that anyone in need of help and assistance, both within Broadway itself and out into the surrounding areas, has somewhere to turn to. The aim of this group is to relieve the stress of personal problems by providing information locally. This is done by the volunteers who are trained listeners and by the facilitation of other organisations which also make use of Signpost’s premises.