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| From left: Rachael Warnes (Norwich City Council business improvement team leader), Grace Barrell and Ella Greenway (winners), Derrick Rust-Andrews (director of Gasway). |
A poster created by pupils at Norwich’s Sewell Park College as part of a competition is helping Norwich City Council spread the gas safety message to 16,000 households in the city.
The winning design will feature on the cover of the council’s gas safety leaflet, which is sent to thousands of tenants each year and features in the handbook given to people when they first move into a council property.
The 11-year old pupils Grace Barrell and Ella Greenway created the poster for the contest, which was run by the city council in partnership with Gasway, its main contractor for gas servicing, repairs and maintenance.
Nearly 100 posters were entered in the competition, with the children taking inspiration from a joint
gas safety presentation, featuring live demonstrations, by the local authority and its partner.
Judging took place at City Hall by council leader, Brenda Arthur, director of regeneration and development, Jerry Massey, and director of Gasway, Derrick Rust-Andrews.
Councillor Arthur said: “Congratulations to all the young people who very effectively got the vital gas safety message across in this competition - it’s terrific that so many children were inspired by our gas presentation to create such helpful posters.”
Mr Rust-Andrews added: “We were impressed by how the pupils took the message on board. Many of them would have gone home and talked to their parents about gas safety and showed them their posters, so if we save one life by running this competition, it’ll be worth it.”
The winning poster design, created by Grace Barrell and Ella Greenway, can be seen below:
Besides winning the chance to help promote gas safety awareness, the winners each received a £20 WH Smith voucher. Second place was awarded to Lisaranne Roxby, who received a £10 WH Smith voucher, and third place went to Callum Ellis, who won a £5 WH Smith voucher.
The prizes for first, second and third place were donated by Gasway. But judges Councillor Arthur and Jerry Massy were so impressed with the standard of entries that they each donated a £5 WH Smith voucher for two year seven students they singled out for special mentions. Curtis Randall was rewarded for successfully getting the key message across in his poster and Abi Hayes was rewarded for the detail included in hers.
The winning poster will appear on the Gasway website, and will be used to promote gas events in the future, such as roadshows.
Owing to the success of the gas safety presentation, Sewell Park College has asked the council and Gasway to give a similar presentation to their sixth form students.