One vote today came in from someone who described his location as: ‘Came in on my boat. Now near Banff’. First votes from Northern Ireland arrived, along with votes from Norway, Austria and Thailand – and more from many of the 20 non-UK countries mentioned in last night’s update. The geographical sweep of people now with access to news on all of Argyll and the islands is encouraging for all of us. This is all of the community building for Argyll we’d hoped it would be.
Again today voting patterns have taken a new tack. Supporters of some candidates seem to have woken up after Christmas and are strongly on the move. This has had an impact on previous positions in many categories – and the game’s only at half-time.
Tonight we’re doing a situation update on voting patterns in each category – so here goes, in alphabetical order of category:
- Best Accommodation: dead tie in the lead between two contestants
- Best Individual or Group Achievement: a lot of action here – sleeping supporters of some contestants woke up and at the moment this one’s too close to call
- Best Arts Website: virtually a three-way tie
- Best Blog: very lively action in this category – one establishing a strong lead
- Best Community Event: lots of action in this category today too, with one pulling away to a degree
- Best Community Initiative: big supporter wake-up here, propelling one contestant into the lead
- Best Community Website: fierce action again, with one contestant pulling away today
- Best ecommerce Website: one contestant now has a modest lead
- Best Event: another hotly disputed award with one contestant catching the previous leader
- Best Heritage Website: always an interesting category, today saw some supporters of a sleeper get moving – could be highly competitive
- Best Local Newspaper Website: better action in this category today, with voters realising the value of the candidates
- Best Music & Arts Organisation: perhaps the strongest action in a very busy day – one contestant came from close to nowhere and stormed into the lead in is a tightly contested category
- Best Potential for 2009: interesting action here – supporters of one contestant woke up and made a strong play but have ground to make up
- Best Renewable Energy Initiative: more interesting action in this one – from a tight draw last night, one contestant is pulling away to a degree
- Best Restaurant: One contestant is pulling away from a very level field
- Best Sporting Facility: again lively action leaving the situation just now too close to call
- Best Tourism Website: still a fiercely competitive category, with one contestant now clearly in the lead
- Best Village Hall: good to see how competitive this category is – one contestant has now taken a lead in a level field
- Best Visitor Attraction: again highly competitive, with one contestant going into the lead over a very equal field
- Best Wildlife Website: close voting between high calibre contestants with one maintaining last night’s lead
We can’t tell you how much we’re looking forward to being able to tell you about the pictures painted of Argyll in this initiative – but they are genuinely inspirational.
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