What a tough task it was for the judges of the 2020 Best of Wearside Awards as they meet to draw up the shortlist

The judging of the 2020 Best of Wearside Awards has taken place and it was a phenomenally hard task for this year’s panel.

That’s because the standard of entries was so high and the number of nominations was higher than ever before.

The judging panel, which was made up of representatives of the sponsors of the competition, deliberated for hours over this year’s winners but eventually came up with an outstanding set of champions.

The panel of judges for the 2020 Best of Wearside Awards.

They heard that there had never been as many entries in the history of the competition. But the eventual list of winners means this year’s finals will be a memorable occasion and watch out for it coming soon.

This year’s competition has backing from headline sponsor BGL, partner sponsor Utility Alliance, partner sponsor Gentoo, and category sponsors Marelli, Wearside Audi and the North East Autism Society.

We thank them all for getting on board and helping to make the awards a success.

The next stage of the competition is the awards finale at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday, April 1.

We will be unveiling winners in categories such as Community Group of the Year, Student of the Year, Green Champion of the Year and Child of Courage.

There will also be winners in the Child of Achievement, Fundraiser of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Sporting Achievement of the Year and Community Champion sections.

For the first time ever, we will also be announcing the winner of the brand new Young Voice of Wearside category.

And there will be plenty more to celebrate on a night which represents all that is best about the Wearside community.

Watch out for full coverage of the awards shortlists in the Sunderland Echo, and it will be coming soon.

We will also have a reporter and photographer team at the awards on April 1 to bring you full coverage of the finale.

And watch out for a supplement in the Sunderland Echo in the week after the awards, filled with photos and interviews with the winners.