The Telegraph & Argus is Britain's best community newspaper, according to the judges of one of the country's most prestigious awards.

The Community Newspaper of the Year award was presented to Editor Perry Austin-Clarke at a glittering ceremony in Manchester last night.

The newspaper beat titles from throughout Britain and Northern Ireland to take the accolade awarded by The Newspaper Society, the body which represents the whole of the local and regional newspaper industry.

In particular, the judges praised the T&A Bradford's Best Millennium Community Awards which, they said, were a "brilliant" example of a newspaper working right at the heart of its community and recognising the wealth of voluntary effort involved.

The award coincided with the arrival of a personal letter from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who wrote to Mr Austin-Clarke praising the Bradford's Best campaign.

Mr Blair said the paper had "blazed a trail" for others to follow and had "every reason to be proud."

His letter is reproduced in full on this page.

It was also announced today that sales of the T&A have increased for the third successive six-monthly period.

Official figures from Audit Bureau of Circulations showed that more people are reading the T&A now than they were two years ago, while the majority of other daily newspapers in Britain continue to show a decline in sales.

Mr Austin-Clarke said: "The Community Newspaper of the Year award is a truly wonderful achievement.

"It is a marvellous recognition of the work of all our staff in representing the whole of the Bradford and district community and genuinely reporting the issues which concern our readers.

"No editor could wish for anything more than for his newspaper to be recognised for being right at the heart of its community."

He said the T&A had always known that the Bradford's Best awards and the year-long campaign which accompanied them amounted to something very special.

"It wasn't simply a marvellous achievement by the newspaper, it was a real opportunity for us to shout about the very many moving stories and fantastic voluntary efforts which go to make up our special local community," he said.

Bradford's Best paid tribute to the district's army of unsung individuals and organisations whose tremendous efforts went largely unseen by the general public.

It had invited readers to put forward their own candidates for 11 categories, including Best Citizen, Best Neighbour and Best Community Group.

Among them were a cancer sufferer who raised thousands of pounds for charity, a volunteer who dedicated more than 40 years to supporting the elderly, and a youngster who penned an anti-drugs play.

The campaign, which ran across 1999, also sought to highlight the district's general achievements and to draw attention to the many positive initiatives taking place in the Bradford area.

The campaign culminated in a glittering awards night at Bradford's Cedar Court, hosted by TV personality Christa Ackroyd.

Tony Blair thanked Britain's regional media for encouraging volunteers to work in their communities during the Active Community Convention in London, where he announced Government plans to boost volunteers. And then he singled out the T&A for special praise.

In his letter, Mr Blair said: "The T&A has every reason to be proud.

"By recognising and celebrating, in this way, the effectiveness of voluntary action and encouraging people to give something back to their community, the paper has helped to blaze a trail which others, I am delighted to say, are now following."

And Mr Blair joked: "I know the organisers probably won't thank me for this, but Bradford's Best was such a good campaign and so well supported that I hope the city is not going to have to wait until the end of this Millennium before the T&A runs it again."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.