A SERIES of high profile campaigns and appeals by The Press over the years have demonstrated the value of real news and a free press.

Here we look back at some of our successful campaigns and front page stories over the past decade or so.

Last year, our The Road to Justice campaign helped lead to a re-writing of sentencing guidelines for dangerous drivers who kill or seriously injure other road users.

Our Be Vocal For Your Local campaign successfully campaigned to close a planning loophole and give drinkers a chance to have a say on the future of pubs in their community. Developers must now apply for planning permission for a change of use to redevelop pubs.

In 2014, our Take Care campaign highlighted the dangers of York's rivers after a series of deaths in the water.

Ten years ago, our Change It campaign closed a loophole in the law allowing people involved in attempting to abduct children to stay off the Sex Offenders Register.

In the mid-2000s, our Guardian Angels raised £300,000 for a new high-dependency unit for York Hospital's children's ward, allowing many more very sick children to be treated in York rather than having to be transferred to cities such as Leeds.

But some appeals looked much further afield. The Boxing Day tsunami sparked York Aid, a joint appeal by The Press and City of York Council to help communities stricken by a disastrous tidal wave in the Indian Ocean after an earthquake in 2004.