Winning the top prize in this year’s Airbus and Leader Community Awards “will make an unbelievable difference” to a Bradley-based horse rescue centre.

From more than 120 entries and with thousands of votes cast, Leader readers selected H.A.C.K Horse Sanctuary, which has dedicated itself to rescuing and treating abandoned horses for over 25 years, as the recipient of this year’s £7,000 top award.

The 2018 awards marks the fourth year of the partnership between the Broughton-based aerospace company and the Leader, with £20,000 in total handed out to good causes across Flintshire, Wrexham, Chester and Ellesmere Port.

A special ceremony was held at the Broughton plant visitor centre yesterday, where the 10 finalists were honoured by Paul McKinley, head of plant, and Susan Perry, group editor for Newsquest North Wales - the Leader’s parent company.

Mr McKinley said: “I was born in this community so these awards mean a lot to me personally. It’s an opportunity for us to say thank you for the fantastic work so many people do.

“Some of the causes here are so humbling and it has been difficult to narrow it down.”

This year’s awards saw an increased prize fund, with first place receiving £7,000, second £4,000, third £2,000 and seven runners-up each receiving £1,000.

Volunteers at H.A.C.K overjoyed to find out they had received the most votes from readers, with team member Jane Lloyd confirming the money would go towards their many different educational programmes.

“We are only a little charity and we run on about £25,000 a year, so this is a huge chunk of what we have to raise every year,” said Jane. “Everyone is a volunteer and there are no paid staff - we’ve been going for 26 years and during that time we’ve rescued over 200 horses.”

Also honoured at the awards were Dee Point Primary and Brymbo Heritage Orchard, who came second and third respectively.

Ms Perry added: “The Leader is pleased to be working with Airbus again on the community awards.

“Each year we are blown away by the number of amazing groups and organisations that are doing so much good work in the community. It really is tough having to pick a shortlist of 10.

“Their hard work and commitment is to be applauded and it is fantastic that we are able to highlight the work they do and give them some much needed funding.”