Havenstreet has been crowned as the Isle of Wight's Best Kept Village of the Year at an annual awards ceremony.

The awards, held at Whitwell Village Hall on Wednesday evening (September 27), were opened by Best Kept Village Awards chair Ann Evans before the first award of the night – Best Kept Extra Large Village – was presented.

Ann said all the villages suffer a high footfall, scoring average or below for litter, with the winner announced as Totland.

In the Best Kept Large Village category, the runners-up were Gurnard and Seaview, receiving high scores except for noticeboard management – with some notices out-of-date.

The first-place award went to last year’s runner-up St Helens, collected by Jacky Matthews, the villages’ clerk.

Best Kept Medium Village was very close, with runners-up Chale/Chale Green and Chillerton and Gatcombe congratulated on a ‘very commendable effort’.

Havenstreet scooped the top prize, scoring consistently high grades and impressed judges.

High Sheriff Dawn Haig-Thomas presented the Best Kept Small Village award.

All small villages were noted as being ‘really charming’ and scored ‘highly on absence of litter’, with Brook/Hulverstone and Calbourne runners-up.

However, it was Bonchurch which came away with top spot.

The Audrey Finlay Salver for Best Kept War Memorial was presented by Commander David Hilton, who served 55 years in the Royal Navy, including 15 years at Portsmouth Naval Base.

Chair Ann said the cleanliness of the stonework was concerning throughout, but Calbourne stood out as cleaner than most, taking home the award for the first time since 2008.

The Village P.R.I.D.E Award was handed to David and Andrew Scovell, who help keep Bonchurch looking beautiful.

David Scovell collected the award, described by Ann as ‘dedicated’ and ‘thoroughly worthy of the award’.

Havenstreet collected The Tim Beak Trophy for Overall Best Kept Village, presented by the chair of the IW Council, Claire Critchison.

Veronica Hattersley, who collected Havenstreet’s two awards, said it was ‘wonderful’ to have won.

She said: “I just haven’t got the words at the minute; I can’t wait to get home and put it on Facebook!

“I’m so pleased for the village because they put in so much time and effort.”