At the heart of the London Parade there is a competition between the London Boroughs called 'The Let's Help London Challenge'.

Every year since 1995 each of London's 31 Boroughs along with the City of Westminster has been invited to enter the Parade with an act, float, or other form of entertainment or exhibit that demonstrates a facet of the Borough.  With so many wonderfully diverse and exciting parts of London the Borough entries in 'The Let's Help London Challenge' form one of the great highlights of the Parade.

This year’s winners were The London Borough of Brent – winning £7,500 for the mayoral chosen charity. 2^nd were Merton, winning £6000. 3^rd Westminster, winning £5000. 4^th Hounslow, winning £4,000. 5^th Sutton, winning £3000. 6^th Barking & Dagenham, winning £2,000. 7^th Redbridge, winning £1,500. 8^th Enfield, winning £1,500. 9^th Hillingdon, winning £1,500. 10^th Hammersmith & Fulham, winning £1,000. 11^th Richmond Upon Thames, winning £1,000 and 12^th were Bromley, also winning £1000.

Why a challenge? because each entry from a London Borough is competing for a huge prize pot of cash that is donated by the Parade to charities selected by the Mayors of winning Boroughs. Since the inception of the Parade the event has raised or donated well over a million pounds to local and national charities.
 

The 2010 London Boroughs Competition

To organise the Competition the London Parade works very closely with all of the Civic Mayors and Civic Ambassadors of London's Boroughs and the Lord Mayor of the City of Westminster.  After Mayor making during the month of May the London Parade starts work with the incoming Mayors to produce their Boroughs participation in the Parade.  If you are interested in becoming involved in your Borough's entry for the 2010 London Parade please click here for a full list of all participating Boroughs and their contact details.  If you would like to receive more information directly from us please send an e-mail to lizzie@londonparade.co.uk.

This year the theme of the 2010 London Borough Competition is:

'Let Us Entertain You'

The aim being to use fun, laughter and entertainment to shrug off any remaining gloom from the recession, lifting London into a brighter New Year!

The 2010 Prize Fund

The London Parade has pledged to match the 2009 prize fund for 2010.  In 2009 the total prize fund eventually reached £38,000 with prizes of £7,500 for first prize, £6,000 for the second, £5,00 for third, £4,000 for fourth, £3,000 for fifth, and £2,000 for 6th.  Boroughs coming in between 7th and 9th place each were awarded with £1,500 and those between 10th and 12th £1,000 in addition there were two special prizes each to a value of £1,500.

The Charity Collection for 2010

Once again during the Parade on January 1st 2010 all participating Boroughs will be allowed to have Charity Collectors join their entry along the Parade route.  A good entry and experienced collectors can often raise four figure sums for the Mayoral Charities.  All this, of course, is in addition to the prize fund and any charity donations made by the Parade.  We ask that our half a million plus spectators give generously to the charity collectors in appreciation of their fabulous fun filled free afternoon of entertainment.

Judging the 2010 Parade

To be completely fair the judging of the entries of 'The Let's Help London Challenge' is carried out by a completely non partisan panel of judges.  The judges are under the supervision of Parade Patron and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Greater London, Roger Bramble.  Mr. Bramble will assemble his panel of judges from amongst the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of overseas missions in London.  The judges will give points to each entry on the following basis.  A maximum of 40 points will be awarded for entertainment value with up to 30 points available under the heading 'identity,' or how well does the entry represent the Borough and Communities within it?  The remaining 30 points out of a total of 100 that each judge has available are broken down to give a maximum of 10 each for display, effort, and originality.

The Winners in 2009

The 2009 'Let's Help London Challenge' top prize was taken by the London Borough of Merton, earning their Mayoral Charity £7,500 for their entry 'Winter Wonderland'.  Tower Hamlets with their 'Mr. Recycle More Robot' came second earning the Mayor £6,000 for his Charity.  Hammersmith & Fulham came a close third with circus school 'Albert & Friends' earning their Borough £5,000.  In fourth place was Enfield winning £4,000 and the City of Westminster came fifth with £3,000.  The 2009 winners, the London Borough of Ealing, once again represented by South Connections, remained in the top six and earned £2,000 for the Mayor's Charity.     Seventh, eighth, and ninth places went to Brent, Redbridge, and Hounslow respectively who each earned  £1,500 whilst 10th, 11th, and 12th places went to Barnet, Waltham Forest, and Havering who each received cheques for £1,000 to the Mayoral Charities.  Special prizes of £1,500 each went to Sutton and Islington.

Other Boroughs who took part in 2009 were Barking & Dagenham, Bromley, Haringey, Harrow, Kensington & Chelsea, Richmond Upon Thames, Southwark, and although they did not receive Charity prizes they all raised very welcome sums for their charity in their street collection.

'The Let's Help London Challenge' League Table.

When the London Parade initiated the competition in 1995 we thought it would be fun to have a league table to reflect how Boroughs would fare over the years of competition and also to instill a little bit extra competitive edge into 'The Let's Help London Challenge'.  Points have been awarded on the basis of positions gained since the first 'Let's Help London Challenge' in 1995.  As you can see the majority of London's Boroughs now feature in the league table which means that the substantial majority of London Boroughs have won prizes of one kind or another over the years of the competition, and all London Boroughs have infact taken part in at least one year of the competition since its inaugeration.      
 

 Please Note: The Royal Boroughs of Kingston Upon Thames and Kensington and Chelsea, and the London Boroughs of Croydon, Hackney, Haringey and Wandsworth have all taken part in the Let's Help London Challenge, but have not yet scored any points to make it onto the league table.