MOUSE-POWER has been harnessed by organisations in every walk of Hampshire life and those who have made the most of the opportunities offered by the internet have been recognised in the Hantsweb Awards.

This is the seventh year of the county council-run competition which aims to improve the standard of online services, encourage good practice, reward innovation and raise awareness of the opportunities the web presents for communities.

Fittingly, the winners found themselves in “seventh heaven” as the presentations took place beneath the stars in Winchester’s Intech Planetarium where the guest of honour was the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, Dame Mary Fagan, DCVO, JP, who opened the awards ceremony with this year’s host, Wave 105 radio presenter, Steve Power.

With a record 1,400 nominations this year, the 13 categories covered everything from businesses to schools, charities, public service bodies and voluntary groups and nominations had been assessed by judges with expertise and experience in their chosen field who were looking for good practice, accessibility, ease of use, relevance and great design.

Winner of the best small business category, sponsored by BAM Construction, was Winchester’s Sweet Treat Company, whose website, www.sweettreat co.co.uk, was described by the judges as “bright, colourful and easy to navigate”.

Owner, Kristian Price, was delighted: “We are absolutely thrilled. It has been a rollercoaster year setting up our sweet shop and the website has been key to our success,” he said.

“The award will be shared with all of our customers, staff, Facebook fans and Twitter followers who have been a huge support.”

Runners-up were Preproom. org and Something Interesting.

The Sweet Treat Company was a runner-up alongside Online Fire Safety Training, behind winners, The Real Island Food Company, in the Virgin Media Business-sponsored business innovation section.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust won the special interest category, which was sponsored by Experian.

Abi Jarvis, the trust’s e-media marketing officer, had project-managed the design and implementation of www.hwt.org.uk and she said: “To receive this recognition is a boost to everyone who works on it. To win the award in a category with more than 200 nominations is a tribute to the team that contributes to its content and works hard to keep it up to date with relevant information.”

Runners-up were Fishing Fools and Matt & Cats’ IoW Eating Out Guide.

The Hants and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and the Jubilee Sailing Trust were runners-up in the charity or voluntary website category, sponsored by Lagan, behind the The Ellen MacArthur Trust which won two awards.

The second was in the Cica-sponsored life-changing website category in which the Jubilee Sailing Trust was again a runner-up, along with Community Action Hampshire.

The public services category, sponsored by ESRI (UK), saw a giant-killing performance by the team behind a community website providing information to the Itchen Valley villages known as The Worthys. They beat Isle of Wight Council and Hart District Council.

Winchester’s St Bede Primary School won best children and families website. a category sponsored by Wave 105, ahead of Hampshire Autistic Society and Naomi House, Sutton Scotney.

St Bede was also a runner-up, along with Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, in the ExxonMobil-sponsored education and learning category, which was won by Bay House School, Gosport.

Another success for the county town came in the tourism and leisure section, sponsored by New Mind. It was won by Visit Winchester, the runners-up being Destination Basingstoke and Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre.

Hayling Island won the pride of place category, which was sponsored by the Daily Echo, with Bitterne Park and Destination Basingstoke named as runners-up.

The best young people’s website category, sponsored by Wyse, was won by I Like Music, ahead of Graduate Jobs South and University of Portsmouth Students’ Union, who were the inaugural winners of the public vote category.

New Forest Food Challenge won the healthy lifestyle category, which was sponsored by Stannah Stairlifts.