Valentines Park inspires student's award-winning work (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Valentines Park inspires student's award-winning work

12:33pm Thursday 9th July 2009 in

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VALENTINES Park has been the colourful inspiration behind a talented student's award-winning design.

Budding artist Abhirame Bavaharan, from Parkhill Junior School in Clayhall, beat thousands of pupils across London to scoop third place in the London Jersey competition.

The task, which was sponsored by Transport for London (TfL), was to design a Tour de France-style jersey based on the theme of 'cycling in my favourite place.'

Abhirame chose Valentines Park in Ilford as her muse and was presented with a framed version and printed T-shirt of her design at an awards ceremony held at the London Transport Museum on Friday, July 3.

The colourful creation will also be displayed at future TfL school travel team events.

Abhirame, 11, said: "I am very proud and ever so pleased with myself for achieving third place in the competition.

"The standard of the other entries were very high and I would like to thank everyone who came to the awards with me and supported me.

"I like cycling in Valentines Park because there is so much to see in all four seasons.

"My design shows that the park is my favourite place to cycle because I can ride and enjoy nature in any season, from the buzzing of bees to the tall blossom trees."

Pupils from 210 schools across London took part in the annual competition which aims to promote cycling and raise the profile of cycling in schools.

Cllr Michelle Dunn, Cabinet Member for Environment and Highways said: "I would like to congratulate Abhirame on her unique jersey design.

"The London-wide competition run by TfL aims to encourage more pupils to cycle and think about cycling as a fun activity.

"The competition compliments the work being done by Redbridge Council's Travel Planning Team to promote cycling across all Redbridge schools and it's great that Abhirame represented Redbridge at these Awards."