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Festival Place's Steven Connolly and Jane Stewart with the Purple Apple award and certificate

BASINGSTOKE'S flagship shopping centre has received an accolade for its key involvement in the A Place to be Proud of Awards.

Festival Place received a Merit Award in the community relations category of the BCSC Purple Apple Marketing Awards.

The Purple Apple marked the centre's contribution to the A Place to be Proud of Awards, which are now in their fifth year.

Steven Connolly, centre director of Festival Place, said: "We're very proud to receive this highly-rated national award for our community work at Festival Place.

"The A Place to be Proud of Awards have gone from strength to strength over the years, with increased entry levels and involvement from individuals and organisations within the local area.

"This is largely due to the dedicated team that works on this initiative at Festival Place and we are sure that this year's event will be an even bigger success."

The BCSC Purple Apple awards recognise marketing achievements by shopping centres throughout the country, and Mr Connolly and Jane Stewart, marketing manager at Festival Place, collected the Merit Award at a ceremony in Wembley Arena.

Festival Place was one of the founder sponsors of the A Place to be Proud of Awards, together with Gazette Newspapers, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and the Local Strategic Partnership. These four organisations, together with Destination Basingstoke, are the driving forces behind this year's awards.

The fifth annual awards dinner and presentation ceremony will take place on July 13 in Festival Place - which has hosted all the awards events since 2003 - and this year, celebrity Hampshire TV gardener Charlie Dimmock will be the star host.

The awards - which this year have been backed by a record number of sponsors and supporters - will see accolades presented in a range of categories to people, companies and organisations who have all made a difference in Basingstoke and Deane.

8:46am Wednesday 14th May 2008

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