A unique police scheme which encourages young people to take part in community projects celebrates its first birthday today.

Since the pioneering Work to Play Scheme was launched in the Toller Lane division, more than 350 youngsters have taken part in 74 community schemes - notching up 3,500 hours in community service time.

After completing a project the youngsters are given "leisure points" which they can trade in at Bradford City and Bradford Bulls matches, the Odeon cinema or to swim at the Richard Dunn sports centre.

To mark the anniversary, Toller Lane's youth projects officer PC Tim Illingworth has joined forces with Bradford Community Environmental Project to honour the best projects at an awards ceremony in City Hall next week. The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Tony Cairns, and Superintendent John Crosse will hand out certificates to the winners.

The overall winners were Ishtiaq Khan, Fasil Yaqoob, Waqar Bashir, Arbab Khan and Adnan Ahmed. They worked at Shuttleworth House, Four Lane Ends, cutting down bushes, tidying the grounds and helping elderly residents with shopping and crime prevention.

PC Illingworth said: "The scheme is what Work to Play is all about.

"The young people have targeted their efforts into making the environment safer and more pleasant as well as reducing the fear of crime for the elderly residents of the complex."

Four other schemes which have been highly commended are:

A group of ten youngsters who built a rockery at Farcliffe Family Centre, which had been the target of vandalism;

Young people who took over an abandoned allotment at Bullroyd Lane where they grew vegetables which they sold to raise money for charity;

A group which worked to build a concrete path for disabled people at Bradford City Farm;

Four pupils from Belle Vue Girls' School who raised money for Bradford Guide Dogs for the Blind.

The pioneering scheme has been praised by both adults and youngsters.

One youngster, who wrote a letter to PC Illingworth, said: "I think the scheme is a brilliant idea and will help boost the commitment in the future of young people in doing work for their community."

PC Illingworth said he has been contacted by police forces and other agencies from as far afield as the Isle of Man, Devon and Cornwall.

He said: "Where schemes have been set up, quality of life has been improved for everyone. I'm looking forward to seeing it through a second year."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.