The West Johnstone Community Website has been voted the overall winner in the award for Community Enhancement Through The Internet, at the Calor Scotland Community of The Year Awards in Edinburgh on 25 November 2003. Members of the local website group attended a special ceremony to collect the award. Margaret Curran MSP presented the prestigious award to the group.

The awards were launched in 1998 by former first minister Henry McLeish MSP in his capacity of Local Government Minister. The internet award was introduced in 2001 in recognition of the many communities who use the internet to prevent isolation, improve community spirit and communication, while promoting themselves to a world-wide audience.

The event is organised by the Association of Scottish Community Councils (ASCC) and Sponsored by Calor Scotland. The event is supported by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Business in The Community (SBC) and The Robert Gordon University (RGU).

At the awards ceremony Gavin Tomlinson, Communications Manager for Calor Scotland remarked, " The West Johnstone Website Group has successfully helped to bring IT into the community and made internet access readily available. The organising team have planned the website from the outset and have made a major impact on the whole community. Community information, local group contacts, newsletters, activities and forthcoming events are all featured on the site, as are a popular 'Down memory Lane' section and a Gallery section". He continues, "What is really encouraging is that as a result of the interest in the website, classes have been run in the community to help residents of West Johnstone learn internet, computing and web design skills".

The recently introduced e-democracy section allows residents to have open discussions via a forum. Future plans for the site include a young people's sub section and two school-specific sections.

At present the group are working with local agencies training a representative from each to enable them to create and maintain their own subsection within the website.

The website group, the local residents, the West Johnstone Community Learning Centre, the Digital Inclusion Project and Communities Internet have all worked in close partnership to develop and maintain a high standard of e-community in the West Johnstone Social Inclusion Partnership area. This award sets a benchmark for the future of the West Johnstone Community Website and the group look forward to continued growth and development of the site in partnership with the community and official agencies.

Click here to see the photographs taken on the day...