Businesses are being encouraged to help their village win £10,000 in a national TV competition.

Cotswold District Council is alerting business owners and residents that Channel 4 has launched a nationwide hunt for the Village of the Year 2017 and will be awarding £10,000 to the winner.

Anyone living in a village, commonly defined as being larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town, can nominate their neighbourhood as a contender by visiting the Village of the Year website and following a simple application process.

The deadline for nominations is midnight on 14 May.

A panel of judges, led by Penelope Keith, will draw up a shortlist of nominees and then visit and film the villages to determine the winner.

The £10,000 prize should be used in a way that would benefit the village.

Judges will be paying particular regard to:

Appearance: how is the look of your village celebrated and enhanced by its residents?

History and Heritage: how is your village's history remembered?

Village events: what regular events bring residents together?

Village activities: what is on offer in your community?

Visitor experience: how well does the village cater for visitors?

Picture credit: commons Wikimedia; author Saffron Blaze; this file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license