A campaign to improve the appearance of shops and businesses in Great Yarmouth will be celebrating premises that go that extra mile to look their best.

Members of the Civic Society Great Yarmouth have been out assessing nearly 500 premises and market traders in the town for an awards ceremony.

The awards process saw the state of windows and doors looked at as well as window displays and the cleanliness of the pavement outside premises.

After nearly 500 places were examined, the civic society whittled numbers down to 77 and then choose winners for each of the five categories and an overall winner.

The five categories judged were retail, food and drink, services such as banks, estate agents and building societies, personal services such as hairdressers, nail bars and tattoo salons and finally market stalls.

The winners will be revealed by the society at an awards ceremony on the night of Thursday, October 27 at Great Yarmouth Town Hall.

Hugh Sturzaker, chairman of the civic society, said: "Over recent weeks members of the civic society have been assessing the shops, businesses and market stalls in the town centre.

"These numbered nearly 500 properties. We assessed the appearance, cleanliness and state of repair of the windows and doors, the window display and lack of clutter there and the cleanliness of the pavement in front of the property down to and including the gutter.

“The aim of the awards is to improve the appearances of shops, businesses and market stalls in the town centre and to reward those that go that extra mile.

"Hopefully it will encourage others to improve the appearance of their premises. Good looking premises encourage people to enter them and helps to improve the appearance of the town generally.”

As well as the awards for shops, businesses and market traders, the awards ceremony will see a prize handed out for the best garden display at a premises and there will be some other awards which will be announced as well.

The award sponsors are Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Town Centre Partnership, SPP Digital, Bruce Sturrock, Ajay Kumar and Mr Sturzaker.