TO mark 100 years of the first village halls advisory service, Allied Westminster is launching a "Wonderful Villages" photo competition to help cash-strapped UK village halls in rural locations.

Most community halls are small charities which struggle with finances yet provide a vital service in their rural communities.

The competition aims to highlight their marvellous contribution to village and community well-being with the theme: "Village Life - a photo which characterises the value of community in your village".

The competition will help hall finances by providing a top prize of £1,000 to the winning village hall and £500 to the photographer. Other cash prizes are also available.

The competition will begin on December 15 and run for several months. Halls may make as many photo entries as they wish.

This is a non-commercial initiative and no entrance fee or purchase is necessary for halls to take part. Its aim is to encourage community spirit and reward it.

ACRE (Action for Communities in Rural England) is publicising the event, as are more than 30 of the Rural Community Councils (RCCs) which care for community halls throughout Britain.

A proportion of the 10,000 village halls in Britain have no direct connections through support networks and are left to fend for themselves financially. All are small charities.

If halls would like to take part, an A4 poster for noticeboard display can be downloaded from: https://villagehallsurvey.com/survey/photo-competition .

Rules and details are available from: https://www.facebook.com/AlliedWestminster/ .