YOUNGSTERS at a York primary school are bidding to get £1,000 as part of a crime-busting competition.

Burton Green Primary School, in Clifton, is through to the final of the North Yorkshire Crimebeat competition aimed at improving safety and combating crime.

Crimebeat is a charity set up by the county's High Sheriff, and supported by North Yorkshire Police, to encourage young people to get involved with crime reduction activities and create safer communities.

Members of the Burton Green School Council went to Aldwalk Manor Hotel last night to give a presentation on their project to promote safety awareness among younger citizens.

If their completed project is judged the winning entry, they could secure a top prize of £1,000. The eight youngsters were competing against other pupils from schools and youth groups from across York and North Yorkshire.

At Burton Green, youngsters were spurred on by a talk from PC Lee Featherstone last year and set about coming up with ideas for the competition.

Burton Green's school council had to give a presentation to the High Sheriff in January to get through to last night's finals.

Teaching assistant Erika Deverall, who has been co-ordinating efforts, said: "After the police visit we went away and had a think about what project we could do. We could have looked at anti-bullying or maybe bike safety, but decided that it would be best for the children to decide what they wanted to do. So the school council came up with the idea of running a safety competition for children in each class to come up with poems, posters or videos on safety and the winners would be put in a safety pack to go out to the whole school."

The children have come up with a host of ideas from how to use electricity safely to road safety awareness.

Children and Young People's Champion, Coun David Scott, said "I was with members of the school council when they gave their presentation to the High Sheriff in January. They had the idea of running their own competition in school to promote safety awareness among young people. Through their hard work, they have won a place in the final."

If the school wins, the prize money will be put towards providing every pupil with a safety pack, including posters or poems on keeping safe, as well as leaflets.