Children and young people around Catterick are using their creative skills to produce artwork to be displayed on a new major town centre development.
Work to deliver a £21 million scheme to create a new town centre for the garrison town begins this autumn.
The North Yorkshire Council scheme, which has won government funding, will see the area around Shute Road redeveloped to include a community and enterprise building as well as improvements to Coronation Park.
Children from local schools in Catterick, Colburn and Hipswell have been asked to create images for the hoardings - and last week, children attending the PT Childcare Club and North Yorkshire Together’s FEAST programme, at Le Cateau Primary School, turned their hand to artwork.
Picking up their paintbrushes and pencils, they were given the freedom to produce anything including poems, and designs for what they wanted to see.
The central theme they were asked to follow is ‘things that make them happy’.
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for culture, Cllr Simon Myers, said: “The children have come up with some great pieces of artwork which will now be blown up and put on the hoardings for all to see.
"This is a very exciting project for the town and one that we are keen to have the input of people of all ages into.”
The scheme in Catterick includes a new town square on Shute Road, a new pedestrian ramp connecting the development to Richmond Road and a Community and Enterprise building.
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There will also be landscaping improvements, upgrades to Coronation Park and Shute Road, improved play spaces, accessible routes to the town centre and better footpaths and cycleways.
The authority’s member champion for the armed forces, and local councillor, Cllr Kevin Foster, added: “It was great to hear the children’s view on what they would like to see in the park and interact with them. They were excited about the development and their artwork was thought-provoking.
“We aim to have a fantastic development that will benefit the children and indeed their children for years to come.”
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