SOME of Gorse Hill's youngest residents have been praised for their efforts in sending out a message to graffiti vandals.

Pupils at Gorse Hill Infant and Junior schools were yesterday rewarded with book tokens after taking part in a competition run by beat bobby PC Steve Yates.

And the young pupils have sent a clear message to local vandals that there is no place for tags in Gorse Hill.

Junior school winner Rebecca Timms used tags on her garage at home as inspiration for her poster.

"I saw the graffiti on the garage door and it was annoying someone had done that," she said.

PC Yates said he hoped the next generation of Gorse Hill's youngsters would now be aware of the problems caused by graffiti, the removal of which is one of the top three problems in the area.

"Rather than just looking at the removal we have got to stop the cause," he said.

"Undoubtedly it is young people who cause graffiti, but if you teach them from a young age then the next generation shouldn't have the problems we have now.

"It's part of community policing to teach these lessons to people. Gorse Hill's not had community coppers for about four years so maybe it has been a bit neglected."

Year 5 pupil Devon Anscombe came third from the junior school entries with her design using the "Smart Art or Dirty Flirty" slogan she made up herself.

"I wanted it to be a bit funny as well as trying to get out a serious message," she said.

"I think graffiti is dirty and not very nice when you see it in places. It's just vandalism."

Infant school winner Bethany Boyes used a graffiti-inspired design for her own entry, with the message "No Graffiti" on a blue wall.

Other winners included Nayana Page and Grace Brown from the infants' school and Annabel Titcombe from the juniors.

PC Yates hopes to see some of the posters being used in anti-graffiti campaigns in both Gorse Hill and across Swindon, after being hugely impressed by the standard of the entries.

"The children have been excited about being involved, and that was shown by the number of entries," he said.

"It was very difficult to choose the winners, especially from the junior school - it took me about four days to choose between two of them in the end."

Gorse Hill and Pinehurst councillors Ray and John Ballman and Maurice Fanning contributed to the prize fund for the youngsters.

Mrs Ballman said: "We are really pleased to be involved with the school on this project.

"We think it is really important young children are looking at graffiti in their areas.

"This was a positive way of engaging then with the posters "They can all look around the area and improve the area they live in."