FORMER Weekly News reporter Ben Pike has won a trip to New Zealand after winning a Young Leaders in Agricultural Journalism award.

Ben, 31, will attend the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists congress and intensive boot camp-style workshop in Hamilton in October.

The freelance rural journalist and public relations consultant said: “It’s a great opportunity to meet like-minded people from around the world to share ideas about how to grow and improve small rural businesses like mine.

“Ben Pike Communications has only existed for 18 months so I am always on the lookout for opportunities like this and feel very privileged to have been chosen.”

He is among ten candidates selected on the basis of a written submission before being put before an international judging panel.

Ben, a former student at Heathfield Community School, Monkton Heathfield, grew up in Stoke St Gregory, near Taunton.