They were picked from about 250 entries and show different sides of the town, its happy people, beautiful parks and changing face.

See our gallery of entrants

Our three winners, Piyumi Herath (under 18s), Lesley Doubleday (18-50) and Joan Dove (over 50s) will each receive an Optio P70 Pentax compact digital camera and a pair of designer spectacles with Pentax single vision lenses from sponsors Specsavers.

The winning shots are among 32 wonderful pictures currently on display at PointBlank Photography in King Street, and you can also view them by clicking on our online gallery.

Readers were given the challenge of capturing a face, a slice of borough life or the changing face of our town to help us mark our 150th birthday.

Marshall Bradley, director of Melton Specsavers in Sherrard Street, judged the shortlisted entries with Melton Times photographer Jim Harrison.

He said: "The standard of entries was superb, even better than two years ago when we ran a similar photographic competition.

"It was fascinating to see how people had interpreted the theme of Faces of Melton and there were quite a few really humourous pictures."

You can bid for any of the 32 shortlisted pictures to raise money for Specsavers' charity, Vista, which helps blind and visually impaired people.

To do so simply visit the gallery and pop a post-it note next to the picture you want with your bid, name and a contact number.

Pictures from the shortlist may also be used in a future Melton Times calendar.