A BLOG which shone a light on Breightmet and the people who live there has won a top award.

As Rare as Rubies, by freelance photographer and writer Len Grant, followed residents as they dealt with everyday life, including trying to find work, needing to use a food bank and facing the challenges of welfare reforms and austerity cuts.

The year-long online project was recently named Best City and Neighbourhood blog at the annual Blog North Awards.

It profiled the work of staff at Bolton at Home’s Breightmet Urban Care and Neighbourhood (UCAN) centre and the support provided for tenants facing challenges.

Father-of-three Mr Grant, aged 54, who lives in Withington, Manchester, said: “I’ve met and interviewed some wonderful people during the past 12 months.

"Tenants have recounted their sometimes emotional experiences of struggling with welfare reform and austerity cuts,but still there have been inspirational stories of individual resilience and optimism.

"For me, witnessing the service provided by UCAN staff on the frontline has been incredible, the support they offer their tenants really is as rare as rubies.”

The blog was commissioned by Bolton at Home to raise awareness of its UCAN model and how it responds to the needs of customers.

Vanessa Hamnett, Breightmet UCAN centre manager, said: “Our six UCAN centres have always provided a vital community resource to local tenants but Len’s blog has really helped bring the work they do to life by focusing on some of the individual stories of people using them, as well as detailing the lengths our staff will go to help them.

“We had no idea just how much interest was going to be shown in the blog which has provided a detailed real-life account of how tenants are dealing with major issues such as the bedroom tax.

"We’re all really proud of what the project has achieved.”

The award-winning UCAN centres have been held up as a beacon of best practice for the delivery of neighbourhood services to housing tenants, tackling issues including unemployment, financial problems and digital inclusion.

The Blog North Awards celebrate the best of Northern England’s independent publishing and aim to bring some of the new writing being published online to a wider audience.

To read Mr Grant’s blog, visit asrareasrubies.org.