Bradford’s most dazzling stars came out last night at a glittering awards ceremony celebrating the district’s top community heroes.

Hard-working Bradfordians who have made valuable contributions to their communities were rewarded with medals at the ceremony in the Council chamber at City Hall.

Nominations poured in for the first-ever Community Stars Active Citizens Awards, run jointly by the Telegraph & Argus and Bradford Council.

Readers were asked to send in names of people they felt went the extra mile to make life better for their neighbourhoods – and they did not disappoint.

The awards were looking for a good neighbour, a tireless volunteer, a fundraiser, a community group, a young hero and an all-round community champion.

A panel of judges then had to come up with the soul-searching and difficult task of whittling the dozens of entries down to shortlists of three for each of the six categories.

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Naveeda Ikram, was there to present the specially-commissioned and designed silver medals to the unsung heroes at the event which marked the end of the Bradford District Active Citizens 2011 campaign bringing recognition to the committed people who have selflessly given up their own time to help others.

She said the evening would be one of the “highlights” of her year in office.

The shortlists were revealed last month in a special supplement with the T&A giving readers the chance to vote for those they thought deserved to win each category.

And more than 2,500 votes were cast by the Bradford and district public.

Bradford Council Deputy Leader councillor Imran Hussain, who spoke at the ceremony, said the idea of the awards was to “recognise, celebrate and support the thousands of people in the district who go out of their way to work with other people for no financial gain and no other reward other than self-satisfaction of helping others.

“It’s not structures and buildings that make great cities, it’s the people. Without you this district would not be what it is.”

And Telegraph & Argus deputy editor Damian Holmes said the fantastic response to the awards was no surprise because, he said: “The people of the Bradford district are among the most community-minded and generous-spirited around. We see that day-in, day-out with the many positive news stories we publish.

“We were inundated with stories of selfless sacrifice, bravery and unquestioning service to the needs of others, and it was an incredibly difficult task to select the three finalists in each category.”

Mr Holmes said every single person nominated was a star in their own right but hoped the winners of the new prestigious awards would be proud.

He added: “The term stars is most commonly used to describe film actors, musicians or sporting celebrities. But you, the people nominated for these awards, are the real stars of our community. The contributions you make are priceless.”