A joint campaign by the Newcastle Journal and Teesside Evening Gazette has won a national award.

Go For Jobs, which calls on the Highways Agency to stop using powers which block development in the North East, won the Campaign of the Year Award at the British Chamber of Commerce awards.

It was launched by sister papers The Journal and Evening Gazette with the North East Chamber of Commerce after a string of developments were hit with "Article 14" notices, which block planning decisions that could put extra traffic on major roads.

There was concern that this was threatening thousands of new jobs being brought to the area - and the campaign brought an end to the agency's heavy-handed approach.

Go For Jobs now aims to win improvements to the region's road network.

Brian Aitken, editor of The Journal, said: "I feel really proud that a campaign we started little over a year ago has had such a profound effect on Government thinking.

"That it has now been recognised nationally is extremely satisfying, and it reflects the hard work, endeavour and enterprise that our regional affairs correspondent Ross Smith and the Chamber have put in."

The campaign beat competition from other high profile initiatives to scoop the title at the 2006 Chamber Awards at the Old Naval College in Greenwich, London.

The campaign has just celebrated its first anniversary, and figures show it helped secure more than 12,000 jobs for the North East.