A SOUTHAMPTON newsagent has been voted top of the shops in a Daily Echo competition.

Arrow News in Thornhill Park was the official favourite newsagent in the city-wide competition.

To mark the award, owner Milly Vee-Patel was whisked off to a four-star London hotel for a weekend and taken to see the West End smash hit musical Phantom of the Opera.

Betty Knowles, of Broadwater Road, was picked out as the winning nominee from those who voted for Arrow News.

She received a weekly bouquet of flowers at her home for four weeks.

She said she had nominated Arrow News because staff were "pleasant, helpful and friendly".

Matthew Bradbury, a paper boy at HN News in Bitterne, Southampton, was voted top news deliverer in the same competition.