New posters by children in Morpeth to reinforce anti-litter message

As the old ‘BIN IT TO WIN IT’ posters had been on the side of the town’s bins for more than 15 years, with many noticeably faded and/or ripped, members of Morpeth Litter Group launched a project last year to replace them.

After funds were raised for the initiative through various sources, they linked with King Edward VI School – member of staff Sheila Clark and a group of students – to also engage with the town’s first and middle schools.

Morpeth’s Keep Britain Tidy ambassador Dai Richards said: “Our initial stage was KEVI’s own competition, with prizes offered to the winning artists, and then the response from the first and middle schools was astounding.

“More than 400 entries were received and the designs/ideas were so uplifting to us that deciding the winning posters was extremely difficult. Morpeth Mayor Alison Byard supported us with presentations at the schools before the end of the summer term.

“For all schools, prizes were offered for first, second and third places, plus some special prizes for entries which had exceptional/different designs.

“Thanks to our local printer Northumbria Print, more than 250 posters have been printed and earlier this summer, winning posters for each school were placed on the Market Place and three bins on Bridge Street.

“Some bins near the schools have had their new posters posted this weekend (September 2 and 3). It is hoped to start putting posters onto more bins some time from September 18.”