Binned Burton Latimer prize-winning posters help spread anti-litter message

Vandals who ripped down prize-winning posters designed by two Burton Latimer children to encourage the use of litter bins use have inadvertently helped to promote the campaign.

Posters drawn by nine-year-old Zoe Simmonds and Harry Balmbra, three, had been chosen by a judging panel at Burton Latimer Community Library after they ran a competition.

The designs had been so eye-catching that library supporter and Burton Town councillor Adrian Watts had them made into signs for display on lampposts around the town.

Rachael Newman, library assistant and judge, said: "There were two designs that just jumped out - the colour and the clarity stood out."

Just two days after Cllr Watts and Cllr Murray Scott had attached the signs in the High Street Millennium Garden they noticed that the posters had disappeared.

Cllr Watts said: "We were so impressed by the designs that I showed them to Ken from Kensigns who offered to make them into posters. We put some in the pocket park, along Altendiez Way, outside McDonalds and in the Millennium Garden. I was cycling past and noticed they had been ripped down. The posters were up less than 48-hours - they were cable-tied."

In order to find the missing poster, Cllr Watts took to Facebook asking for help from Burton Latimer residents.

"I went onto Facebook and asked if anyone had found them to please return them. In the end more than 8,500 people saw the post on Facebook.

"The best bit about this is that so many more people saw those posters and the message about using the bins got to more people than might have seen them by walking past."

After the social media appeal, Melissa Woolston and her daughter Alice, two, knew who to contact when they found the posters thrown over her garden wall.

Ms Woolston said: "It's exciting to be able to help. I'm pleased that the posters are back where they belong."

Now the posters will be reattached to the lampposts but this time with an additional message.

Cllr Watts, who represents the Green Party, said: "I'll write 'this is a recycled poster' on the back.

"It's a shame that we have been engaging the person who took them down but they have helped publicise the campaign.

"We have taken the use the litter bin message of two children and got the message out there."

Joint winner of the competition Zoe Simmonds said: "I sang a lot when I found out I had won - I was surprised.

"I think the person who took them down might have been jealous because they didn't win."

Poster designer Harry Balmbra said: "It's sad that someone put the poster in the bin."

The two winners' prizes included books, sweets, book marks and a craft kit.