AN Edinburgh College of Art graduate, announced today as the winner of one of Scotland’s largest creative arts competitions, has dedicated his award to cleaners working on the front line.

Grant Holden, 23, from Edinburgh, has been awarded the John Byrne Award for his stop-motion clay animation film, featuring the cleaner of a multi-storey car park and his talking brush.

Holden was inspired to make the film after reading about how cleaners are “the first to be blamed and the last to be thanked” in a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. He said: “This film is for the workforce of cleaners, which, despite their hi-vis jackets, so often goes unseen.”