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The News & Star, Carlisle, has been crowned the North-West's top daily newspaper at the 10th annual BNFL-sponsored North-West Newspaper Awards.

The winners of the prestigious competition were announced at the JJB Sports Stadium in Wigan, where the awards were presented by Philip Dewhurst, BNFL's director of corporate affairs.

The News & Star fought off tough competition from the Manchester Evening News and Lancashire Evening Post to claim the daily newspaper title.

The Chester Chronicle beat the Manchester Metro News and Lancaster Guardian to become the 2001 BNFL Weekly Newspaper of the Year.

Martin Birchall of the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo was named Photographer of the Year for the sixth time, after first winning the award in the first North-West Newspaper Awards competition in 1992.

The awards are organised by the North-West Society of Editors, with the support of BNFL, to recognise the achievements of journalists and newspapers throughout Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cumbria.

Gordon Maxwell, from the North-West Region of the Society of Editors, said: "The awards are now in their tenth year and I am delighted that it has become such a popular and prestigious annual event in the region.

"The standard of work submitted keeps getting better each year making the job for our judges even more difficult."

The judges in this years competition were: Liz Page, editor, York Evening Press; Alan Powell, editor, Sheffield Telegraph; and Geoff Elliot, director of journalism at the University of Central Lancashire and former editor of the Coventry Evening Telegraph and Portsmouth Evening News.

For a full list of winners click here