John Swift, freelance motoring correspondent at The Sentinel, Stoke-on-Trent, has won a national award for his writing.

He has been crowned the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Regional Journalist of the Year for the fourth time, and collected his trophy during the Guild’s annual dinner at the RAC Club in London.

Judges praised the breadth of topics covered by John in the paper’s Friday and Sunday motoring pages and said they were impressed by the uncompromising stance on editorial standards.

John said: “I entered a feature on a classic racing Jaguar I had tested, an article on the Government’s plans for road pricing and a comment piece on safety after a double fatal RTA in our area.

“In addition to the usual new and used car road tests this demonstrates the breadth of coverage and the focus on reader interest that a good motoring supplement can and should have.

“It is far too easy to fill page after page with endless road tests and copy on new products but that short-changes the reader and if they don’t read the supplement, there’s not much point in the advertisers going in, is there?”

John had previously won the title three years’ running, but was pipped by Northcliffe colleague Scott Fisher, from the Nottingham Evening Post, last year.

John said: “I think these national awards which Scott and I have won over the past five years prove that Northcliffe has an exceptionally strong motoring editorial pool.”

The Guild of Motoring Writers is made up of the UK’s leading motoring journalists including newspaper, magazine, TV and radio staff.

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