THIS year's Place to be Proud of Awards will now take place on June 30. 

The organisers, Destination Basingstoke, said earlier this week that the awards, which were due to take place tonight (June 16), have been postponed. 

The decision to postpone was made after some of the team have tested positive for Covid. 

Felicity Edwards, managing director of Destination Basingstoke, said: "We were devastated to have to take the difficult to decision to postpone the Place to be Proud of Awards, due to staff illness from Covid at Destination Basingstoke.

"Sadly this is the only responsible thing to do particularly knowing our audience will include some more vulnerable people.

"We know the delay will not detract from a wonderful evening of celebration of so many of our community heroes on 30th June - we are working through contacting all our invited guests to let them know about the revised arrangements and very much look forward to seeing them all the more, and thank everyone for their overwhelming support, patience and understanding.

"We are delighted though that the awards will be live streamed on 30th June too (from 6.45pm) so anyone can join the celebrations."

The awards will be live streamed on the Destination Basingstoke Facebook page and YouTube, so anyone can watch.

The Place to be Proud of Awards are organised by Destination Basingstoke in partnership with Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Basingstoke Voluntary Action, and the Gazette as media partners.

The awards recognise the contributions made by individuals, groups, organisations, places and initiatives that make our borough a diverse, vibrant community and a great place to live and do business. Individual categories are sponsored by locally-based businesses.