Frankie Lister-Fell, above, was named Reporter of the Year at the UK Regional Press awards, organised by Haymarket and sponsored by Openreach

THE Extra’s ace in the pack Frankie Lister-Fell was named Reporter of the Year at the annual press awards in recognition of her determined and ongoing reporting of London’s homelessness crisis.

Readers will remember her revealing how tents off Tottenham Court Road were being heartlessly thrown into a rubbish truck.

Frankie is the assistant editor of the Extra’s sister paper, Camden New Journal, and one of the journalists who work on our online video channel on politics, Peeps.

At a glittering ceremony at the Quaglino’s restaurant in St James’s, the judges were singing her praises. They said: Frankie Lister-Fell’s portfolio of work “demonstrates the rewards to be had when a journalist integrates with the local community.

“She looks at issues which might otherwise get overlooked, giving a voice to those without one.

Frankie reported on the removal of homeless people’s tents, in the Extra, November 2023 [Ed Allnutt/Housing Rebellion]

“Lister-Fell revealed that rough sleepers’ belongings and tents were being thrown into council bin lorries to clear the streets, a revelation which gained national attention and forced an investigation into how such a policy could have been agreed.”

This work was a “great example of holding those in power to account”.

Editor Richard Osley said: “Frankie thoroughly deserves this because she puts people at the heart of her stories. She’s not interested in a quick headline, she wants to make a difference.”

The Camden New Journal was also named the country’s best at the awards, an annual Oscars-style event for the industry. The Westminster Extra is one of three independent papers working out of the New Journal office, along with the Islington Tribune.

The judges said the New Journal “brand” was a “great example of a weekly title doing what it does best: campaigning journalism; finding the unusual off-diary stories in their beats and bringing communities together”.

They were particularly impressed with the New Journal team organising and hosting its own climate change conference, commenting “this is a newsroom tackling themes much larger ones shy away from”.