the Huddersfield Daily Examiner has led the way with campaigning journalism which isn’t afraid to hold the powerful to account.

Our Save HRI A&E campaign helped galvanise community opposition to plans to close the accident and emergency department at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

Every step of the way the Examiner has not only followed the story but also helped bring people together to fight the controversial proposals.

Last year our battle bus took to the roads of Huddersfield and Calderdale to get the message over loud and clear that the A&E must not close.

The double-decker toured the streets covered in the Save our A&E logo.

Thousands of people had their say through our posts on Facebook, Twitter, in our letters pages and in the dozens of stories we have published since the proposals first emerged.

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And coverage of the story in the Examiner helped to collect more than 134,000 signatures for the campaign.

Holding public officials to account for their actions is a key role for any campaigning newspaper.

This newspaper exposed the failure of Kirklees councillors to pay their council tax on time, prompting outrage from many quarters.

The scandal, dubbed Ratesgate, has led to the suspension of two councillors who found themselves in trouble with the Labour Party because of their responses to questions posed by the Examiner.

Our investigation last year revealed that 14 councillors had been issued reminders after getting behind with their payments. Five of the 14 were issued summonses when their debts got up to several hundred pounds.

Despite the scandal – and the response from our readers – councillors are still not paying their bills on time.

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The Examiner will continue to expose double standards and hypocrisy wherever we find it.

Few subjects provoke as much anger as those selfish individuals who tip waste with little regard for the environmental consequences.

For months the Examiner provided almost daily updates on the farcical situation at the Hunter Group tip site at Lockwood.

We spoke to residents, the council, the Environment Agency, councillors and local businesses after the tip was abandoned.

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After it burst into flames we continued to ask questions of the authorities, and to report from the scene. The story hasn’t gone away and nor will we.

At the Examiner we are proud of our coverage of these difficult and controversial subjects and will we will continue to ask the difficult questions on the stories that really matter to our tens of thousands of readers, online and in print.