A maintenance firm’s vans have been given a colourful makeover by budding artists. Pupils at Victoria Junior School were asked by PPM to design new liveries for two of their vans.

PPM joined forces with the school because of its close link with housing association Your Derwent and Solway, which owns many of the homes on the schools surrounding estates.

Youngsters had to create a piece of artwork based on what their local community means to them. The winning designs were created by Astile Rice, eight, and Brodie Smith, 11, and can now be seen around West Cumbria on the bonnets of two PPM vans.

Astile focused on New Bridge and the town’s sports clubs, while Brodie incorporated French and German flags into her design to represent Workington’s twin towns.

Gillian Spokes, deputy headteacher at the school, said: “Being part of the community is very important so long may things like this continue.”

The 270 entries were judged by PPM and Your Derwent and Solway. Richard Moth, PPM director said: “It allows the pupils to be creative and feel involved with the community and it gets our vans noticed by people while they’re out and about so it’s a win for everyone really.”

Each winner received shopping vouchers worth £30 and five runners-up received a £10 voucher each.