THE Beckham trail, the council's website which traces the footsteps of Leytonstone-born and Chingford-bred David Beckham, has been voted the best celebrity find for 2003 by internet search engine Yahoo.

The website traces the life of the England captain, from his early days through to his first teams in Chingford and on to the time when he left the borough to travel north to play for Manchester United.

The top ten websites from ten different categories have been short-listed and entered into the competition. The categories are celebrity, which the Real Madrid star's site has won, comedy, community, innovation, mission impossible, educational, entertainment, weird and wonderful, soapbox and pets and animals.

People who used the Yahoo internet service last year were encouraged to visit all the ten sites shortlisted and vote for the one they thought best overall.

At a formal ceremony tomorrow, the council will discover if it has won the people's vote as the number one site.

Cllr Clyde Loakes, leader of the council, said: "Last year a survey rated our website as one of the top 20 local government sites for providing comprehensive service information and advanced interactive features.

"Now the Beckham trail has made us of international interest. This is fabulous for our profile because as well as looking at the trail, people may browse through the rest of the website and learn more about our borough."

The Beckham trail was launched last May and allowed football and Beckham fans a rare insight into the footballer's early life in Waltham Forest. Since the launch, the website has proved to be a phenomenal success, with more than half a million people worldwide visiting it during its launch month alone.

People from as far as Malaysia and Japan as well as Belgium, Holland and Germany have visited the site to find out about Beckham's early years.

You can follow the Beckham trail by logging on to www.lbwf.gov.uk/beckham_trail/index.stm