Chesterfield police poster campaign goes county-wide - encouraging people to stay at home and avoid non-essential travel

Officers asked for help from youngsters in their area to come up with their own stay at home message designs and display them in their windows.

Prizes for the best images included hundreds of Easter eggs and chocolates which have been donated by shops and supermarkets in each area, and representatives from some of the force’s partner agencies have helped to judge the best works of art – including Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service and district or borough council community safety partnerships.

he idea started with Clay Cross Safer Neighbourhood Policing Team, but it quickly caught on with other teams in North East Derbyshire, Chesterfield and the Amber Valley.

PC Tenielle Hardwick helped to set up the competition for the Clay Cross area. She said: “We had more than 190 entries just to the competition in our area alone, and have been delivering the prizes over the last few days.

“Thank you and a huge well done to everyone who has taken part, it’s been totally overwhelming, and also thank you to our local supermarkets for their generous donations of prizes.”

PC Hardwick said: “It’s been great to help get our young community members involved by using their creativity to spread the stay at home message, and a totally different way to engage with our local community during this time.”

Chloe Fisher, pictured, was one of the youngsters who picked up a prize from the Heanor and Langley Mill Safer Neighbourhood policing team’s competition.

Her mum Melanie said: “We thank the officers for all they do to keep us safe, not just during this terrible time.

The current government advice to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus say that people should stay at home, except for shopping for basic necessities; one form of exercise a day; any medical need, including to donate blood, avoid or escape risk of injury or harm, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person; and travelling for work purposes, but only where you cannot work from home.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Nancy Fielder, editor