Peter King, Head teacher at Corporation Road Primary School in Darlington, and nine-year-old Bryony Borrowdale, a pupil at Bishopton Redmarshall Primary School, won Darlington Council’s Making Waste Work short story competition.

The competition asked residents, of all ages, to write a story of no more than 2,000 words on the theme of reduce, reuse, recycle.

Peter’s story called ‘Santa, the recycler’ and Bryony’s story ‘The reuse, reduce and recycle inventor and his trusty assistant save the day’ were judged as the best entries.

Peter and Bryony will read their stories at the Storytelling Festival at Drinkfield Marsh Local Nature Reserve, off Whessoe Road on Saturday August 2.

The Storytelling Festival will run from 1pm to 4pm and other attractions include traditional tales from a professional storyteller, art workshops with children’s author and illustrator Liz
Million, craft activities and a tale trail around the nature reserve.

Nick Wallis, Darlington Council’s Cabinet Member for Sustainable Environment and Climate Change, said: “I was really impressed with all the entries to the Making Waste Work short story competition and I am sure Peter and Bryony will impress visitors to the Storytelling Festival with their environmentally-friendly stories.

“The stories are very different but both show that if we all make small changes to our lifestyle we can really help the environment.

“The festival is a great day out for the whole family and I am delighted that our competition winners have been given the chance to get involved.”