YOUNGSTERS from three schools who dedicated their summer holidays to community projects have been rewarded by the police.

Pupils at Prince Henry's Grammar School, Otley, Benton Park School in Rawdon, and St Mary's School, Menston, all won action-packed PGL breaks in the West Yorkshire Police Lifestyle '98 competition.

The scheme aims to encourage young people to use their holidays to good effect by working within their community - on environmental projects, fundraising activities or any kind of plan to boost their surrounding area.

And for four Year Nine pupils from Prince Henry's, the hard work has paid off. Katherine Cherry, Alice Wainwright, Fiona Breckenridge and Sally Westerman are now looking forward to their PGL holiday in the South of France, coming runners-up in the West Yorkshire competition.

The girls raised funds for Help the Aged, cleaned up their local environment and performed a comedy written themselves for residents of Teal Beck House. They also held a raffle, a sponsored relay and issued a contract pledging to clean a nearby ginnel of litter on a monthly basis.

Girls at Benton Park School in Rawdon were equally committed, raising funds for the Horsforth Training Centre.

Sisters Joanne and Hazel Emmott, of Year 11 and 8 respectively, joined forces with Horsforth School pupil Rachel Bromley, to hold a sponsored walk and a car boot sale among other activities. They won a PGL holiday in South Wales and several other teams from the school were commended by the judges.

Teacher Richard Hoban, who worked with them, said: "I think this is a wonderful initiative that the police have put together. They should be applauded for capturing the imagination of the children."

Another school to feature in the prizes was St Mary's School, Menston, from which another team of youngsters will be heading off to Wales for a well-deserved holiday.

Otley's schools' liaison officer, PC Dave Robson, worked with all three schools. He said he was delighted by their success. I'm chuffed to death with this, absolutely over the moon - they really have done well," he said.

"I think it's a good boost for young people because you get all this talk about the bad things youngsters get up to, and this is something good. They have done a lot of hard work to win this and it's a good reflection on them."

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