A SWINDON Borough Council competition designed to attract articles written by young people for inclusion on a new website held an awards ceremony yesterday.

The Civic Offices in Euclid Street hosted the ceremony to award the winners whose articles will appear on new website thedockswindon.co.uk

Organiser Blair Staynings said: “This is a website for young people written by young people and they are writing about subjects that matter to them. I have been very impressed by the calibre of their work.”

The 15 youngsters wrote about a variety of of topics including sight-seeing, health, mental health, cyber bullying and social media.

A first cash prize of £200 donated by the PCC for Swindon and Wiltshire, Angus Macpherson was awarded to Lucia Beggan, 12.

Lucia from Rodbourne won the top prize for her piece, The Top 8 Places to visit in Swindon.

The St Joseph’s Catholic College student said: “I never expected to win because there were so many talented people. I was really overwhelmed when my name was read out. I am so happy.”

Grace Wiles, 23, also won praise for her emotional article about coming out to her mum at the age of 18.

The ceremony was attended by the mayor Swindon Eric Shaw, PCC Angus Macpherson and Councillor Fionuala Foley, Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet member for children’s services.

The other talented winners were Chelsie May who scooped £50 for her social media inspired piece, Abigail Tuck, Grace Griffiths, Deborah Masters, Mitchell Collett and Dylan Williams who won a place on the mass media summer courses being run by CREATE studios who helped in the development and funding of the Dock.

Certificates were also awarded to Jordan Allaway, Grace Wiles, Issy Keen, Maria Qureshi, Peejay Almajar, Carrie Martins, Mirona Rodrigues, Keisha Norman, and Dylan Williams.