Outgoing Croydon Advertiser chief reporter Gareth Davies has said “death knocks” were his least favourite part of the job, but that they led him to the “most important story” of his career so far after the Advertiser backed a successful campaign to change drug driving laws.

Davies,  who was named Weekly Reporter of the Year at the Regional Press Awards four times and picked up his third award on the trot this year, was writing about his time at the Advertiser in a comment piece ahead of his departure.

He has taken voluntary redundancy as Trinity Mirror makes widespread cutbacks at the Croydon Advertiser,  its associated titles and across all the newspapers formerly published by Local World which were bought by Trinity at the end of last year.