YOUNGSTERS are being encouraged to write about the area they live in for a new competition run by Camden Civic Society and sponsored by the New Journal.
The essay and drawing competition, open to pupils in two age groups – school years 4 and 5 and years 7 to 9 – is designed to get young people thinking about their neighbourhood – and what can be done to improve it.
Subjects can include traffic on the streets, parks, leisure, the walk to school and the street they live in.
To encourage debate, extracts from winning entries will be printed in the New Journal.
Organisers are offering prizes of £500 for the two winners’ schools and tokens and certificates for individual winners and runners-up.
Camden Civic Society chairman Martin Mor-ton said: “Our aim is to get young people to use all their senses to really look at the world around them and to think about what is good and bad.
“We have deliberately set a very broad topic area so they can choose a subject that is close to their hearts.
“The second aim is to give the rest of us the benefit of the views of our young people about the environment.
“They have fresh eyes to view the world. Having the winning entries published means that young people will have a real chance of getting their views across to the population in general.”
The competition is being supported by Camden Council’s education department, which will be writing to schools this week with full details.

•Entry forms can be obtained from schools or from the Civic Society via Camden education department, Crowndale Centre, 218 Eversholt Street NW1 1BD. Closing date is November 1.
For more information, call 020 7586 3321.