Artistic schoolgirl Lottie Luccock has beaten off competition from thousands of other pupils to win Trafford Council’s ‘Don’t be Idle’ poster competition.

The Council invited the borough’s primary school children to design a poster aimed at highlighting the health risk posed by ‘engine idling’ – when parents leave car engines running while waiting at the school gates.

The eight-year-old, who attends Moorlands Junior School in Sale, walked away with £50 worth of vouchers to spend on cycling equipment.

She will also see her prize winning poster, featuring the words ‘turn it off and stop our cough’, produced professionally and feature in the council’s future green campaign.

Engine idling creates air pollution and by turning off engines while waiting to pick up their children parents can make the air cleaner and save cash.

Trafford is one of the 10 boroughs in Greater Manchester working to bring down air pollution by signing up to the Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan.

Cllr Stephen Adshead, Trafford Council’s Executive Member for Environment, Air Quality and Climate Change, said: “I would like to congratulate Lottie on her winning design, for the imaginative and eye catching way in which it gets the clean air message across.

Children’s health is at particular risk from air pollution as their lungs are still developing and we hope Lottie’s poster will make parents and carers think twice about leaving car engines running while waiting at the school gates.”