A CROP of businesses and a graduate from the Salisbury and Forest Journals’ circulation area will have a Christmas to remember after being honoured at award ceremonies.

Ringwood company Churchill Retirement Living has won three national house building awards and EchoPilot, also from Ringwood, has been named New Forest Business of the Year.

Fordingbridge firm the Wealth Care Partnership has been recognised at the Health Insurance Awards and Downton graduate Tom Gardner has been presented with a design award.

There is still time to enter Salisbury and District Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Business Excellence Awards and the annual Dental Awards.

Here we find out more:

* SPECIALIST house builder Churchill Retirement Living has won three accolades at the What House? Awards in London.

The Ringwood company won a gold award for Best Retirement Development, Best UK, and Best Global Retirement Housing Operator in the Over 50s Housing Sector awards.

The judges said: “A retirement developer needs site acquisition, design and build skills, together with a real understanding of its customers’ immediate and ongoing concerns and requirements.

“Churchill has it all, and deserves gold in a very competitive field.”

The Over 50s Housing Sector awards are in their third year and Churchill, which was founded in 1994, has won an award every year since their inception.

*TOM Gardner from Downton has been presented with a top design award for a project examining the use of space by pedestrians and vehicles.

The Oxford Brookes urban design graduate won the Savills Urban Design Award after conducting a study which focused on the use of shared spaces and drew conclusions on the relationship between environment, traffic and pedestrian behaviour.

Andrew Raven, head of the urban design team at Savills in Oxford, said: “The use of shared spaces is complex, but is receiving increasing support because of the potential for positive impacts on the local environment and community.

“Savills’ research has previously identified the positive relationships between the value of streets and good design and Tom’s work expands this evidence base.”

Mr Gardner is now working as a highways engineer for Wiltshire Council.

*ECHOPILOT Marine Electronics, which designs and manufactures marine instruments, has been named New Forest Business of the Year.

Susan Phillips, director of the Ringwood company, was presented with the honour by the Honourable Ralph Montagu at the New Forest Brilliance in Business Awards, at Careys Manor near Brockenhurst.

The business also took first prize in the ExxonMobilsponsored category for innovation and entrepreneurship for its commitment to reducing its carbon footprint.

The company specialises in forward-looking sonar equipment and has developed a 3D system. The system has allowed EchoPilot to greatly increase turnover in 2011 and further growth is forecast next year.

Ms Phillips said: “We were honoured and surprised to win this prestigious award, which will have pride of place in our factory.

“EchoPilot was founded in the Forest more than 40 years ago and the Forest will always be the home of our company, even though our products are in use from the Arctic to Antarctica.”

New Forest Business Partnership chairman Rob Dewing said: “We are delighted that despite the difficult trading conditions, many businesses in the New Forest are not only surviving but thriving, a point demonstrated by the truly excellent calibre of businesses selected as our category winners.”

* LONG TERM care specialist The Wealth Care (TWCP) Partnership of Fordingbridge has been honoured at the Health Insurance Awards.

The firm picked up the Best Long Care Intermediary title at a ceremony in London.

The judges described themselves as “bowled over by the sheer quality of entries in this important category”, but it was a complex case handled by partner Tim Anstee which caught their eye and the “creative and caring manner” in which the company acted in the interests of its client which impressed them.

Mr Anstee said he was delighted to receive the award “on behalf of the whole team, as it is recognition of all their hard work”.

“The sector we work in needs perseverance and patience, something our staff and advisers have in abundance,” he said.

Fellow partner Karen Rayner won the same award in 2008 and both were highly commended in 2009 and 2010.

TWCP’s new development care2plan was shortlisted in the Best Business Initiative category.

*