A FORMER Army officer and businessman has put his computer knowledge to good use by setting up an award-winning website to promote his local village hall.
John Constable, who first encountered computers in 1967 while serving with the Army, has been awarded the Pick of the Month award from The Northern Echo CommuniGate scheme.
The initiative, which was launched in September 2000, has helped hundreds of voluntary organisations to set up their own free websites to promote their groups and the work they do.
As part of the scheme, The Northern Echo selects a new website with the Pick of the Month award, which puts the site on the front page of the CommuniGate website for a month.
The Northern Echo has teamed up with Northern Electric Retail, which sponsors the Pick of the Month award, and gives each winner a Jen-digital JD 160 digital camera.
The website promotes Butterknowle Village Hall, in Teesdale, County Durham.
Mr Constable, 57, said: "I've dealt with computers for many years so I knew the basics, but the CommuniGate scheme made it very easy to set up the website.
"As a voluntary group it would have been very difficult and expensive to launch a website, but CommuniGate has made that possible and I can't recommend it enough."
The site contains information about events in and around Butterknowle and updates about the village hall.
Andrew Hutton, CommuniGate advisor for The Northern Echo, said: "The site really caught my eye. It is well laid out and is a very worthy winner of the Pick of the Month award."
To access the site, or to find out more about CommuniGate, log on to www.communigate.co.uk
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