The Basingstoke Gazette is up for a prestigious accolade at the British Journalism Awards 2020.

Katie French and Ryan Evans’s work investigating the Camrose football ground has been shortlisted in the Local Journalism category.

The awards, often described as the Oscars of British journalism, recognises the best in reporting from across the media industry.

Eighty judges spent three weeks reading more than 800 entries to come up with the shortlists for each category.

The Basingstoke team are up against Peterborough Matters, BBC Birmingham, Archant Investigations Unit, The Orcadian, Yorkshire Post, Yorkshire Evening Post and Belfast News Letter - and the winners will be announced at a virtual awards event on December 9.

Katie French, editor of The Basingstoke Gazette and Andover Advertiser, said: “It is an honour that our journalism has been recognised for this prestigious award and is testament to the hard work of our small but mighty editorial team.

“We are up against the giants of the industry and to have made it this far feels like a win in itself. We are extremely grateful to our loyal readers who support us week in and week out. We are committed to holding those in power to account here in Basingstoke and investigate on the public's behalf.

“Congratulations to everyone shortlisted. The need for local journalism has never been greater and without regional journalists, authorities like Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council would have free reign to do what they wish without scrutiny from the public and press. It is heartening to see the regional press is alive and well across the country.”

The Gazette has been investigating how the public were misled over the Camrose football ground.

In January, they, along with retired sports editor Graham Merry, uncovered a covenant signed to protect the site from development - which Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s team had previously told the public was “missing or lost”.

The story about the Camrose went viral on Twitter with Gary Lineker and The Times’ Henry Winter sharing their words of support.

The newspaper’s campaign helped bring Basingstoke Town Football Club, who were evicted and playing 19 miles away in Winchester, back to the town, after the council coughed up £152,000 for improvements to Winklebury Sports Complex.

Through the team’s investigations in June it was revealed fans of the club were pressurised into selling their shares, believing they were worthless, before the former club’s owner Rafi Razzak and his company Basron purchased the freehold from the site from the Camrose Estate.

Had the fans still retained shares, it is likely they would have been able to reject any proposals to kick the club out of the historic ground and turn the site into housing.

The Gazette’s investigations has raised questions about Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s involvement. The authority owns 30 per cent and was prepared to give away its share to Hampshire County Council for free to turn it into a road to service Basron’s proposed housing site.

But a spanner was thrown into the council’s plans where the development control committee threw out Basron’s outline planning applications to build homes on the historic site, with councillors expressing concerns over the fact that the loss of the ground had not been mitigated. This left planning officers Michael Townsend and Sue Tarvitt red-faced after they recommended the application for approval.

This was a major victory for The Gazette’s campaign, which urges the council to purchase the remaining 70 per cent of the land to bring it back into public use or ensure that a like-for-like stadium is secured before redevelopment.

Basron, left furious by the outcome, now has until March 2021 to appeal.

When contacted by The Gazette, Malcolm McPhail did not answer whether or not they would be appealing but said they were reviewing their options.

The articles viewed by judges that led to the Gazette's shortlisting include:

This is not the first award The Gazette has been shortlisted for this year.

In the summer, the title was shortlisted for Regional Newspaper of The Year at the Regional Press Awards while within its newspaper group, the title was highly commended as the Publishing Centre of the Year.

To support The Gazette and the work that the team does, you can take out a digital subscription by going to www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/subscribe.

Alternatively, you can take out a print subscription by calling 0800 731 4900.

You can find out more about the British Journalism Awards here.