GREEN-fingered Kinver residents are celebrating after their hard work paid off with the village being named as South Staffordshire's most immaculate.

Kinver was recently named the 2016 winner of the large village category in South Staffordshire Council’s ‘Best Kept Village’ competition much to residents’ delight.

A number of locals have been working together to keep up with the weeding, sweeping and tidying across the village as the competition committee hoped to regain the title they narrowly missed out on in 2015.

Competition judges visited the villages twice, once in May and once in June, before coming to their decision.

Organiser of the Kinver committee and parish councillor Lin Hingley, said she was delighted the community had pulled together to keep areas tidy and said dog owners had not only picked up after their pets but also collected litter.

She said: “It is a great competition which gets the whole community working together to keep the village looking nice.

“Everybody has been working very hard picking up litter as they go around the village. All the dog walkers have been helping out and the rotary club have been keeping the high street nice and clean.

“We have a number of groups and individuals, including the Women's Institute, the Old People’s Welfare and the Green Belt Action Group, each looking after one of the flower tubs in the high street.

“Although there is no trophy or monetary reward, we do get a certificate. But for us it’s all about the pride and knowing we have done a good job in keeping our village looking nice and tidy.”

In the past five years Kinver has won the award three times, but expectations were not so high after finishing second behind Wombourne in last year’s competition.

Lin added: “None of us expected to win. Everybody was surprised. I don’t know why we felt that way, we seemed to all have a feeling that we wouldn’t win, so when we found out the result it was lovely.

“I was gobsmacked, but the title is a credit to everyone who worked so hard. We are all delighted.”

The competition sees 12 South Staffordshire villages split into two categories, with six villages contesting the large village award and the other six aiming for the small village title.