A youngster from Blackpool and three youths from Poulton have been given the recognition they deserve at a glittering awards ceremony for Lancashire Constabulary's Celebration of Young People's Awards held at Preston North End last night.

The awards, which involved partner agencies across Lancashire, are part of the Operation Summer Nights campaign, which has been running throughout the summer.

At an awards ceremony last night the commitment, energy and enthusiasm of young people across the county was rewarded.

Geoffrey Asher, from Blackpool Old Road, scooped the Improving the Community award.

The youngster launched a recycling programme at St Aidan's High School ensuring that the mountain of paper that the school previously threw out is now recycled by Wyre Borough Council.

This has been achieved by providing sturdy plastic recycling boxes in every room in the school.

Geoffrey has also spoke to large groups of people in school about recycling issues.

Deputy chief constable Mike Cunningham said: "We see so much in the media these days that is negative about young people but we rarely see or hear anything about the positive contributions being made by the vast majority of youngsters up and down the country.

"The Operation Summer Nights partnership decided to buck the trend and embarked upon a campaign which gave people an opportunity to recognise and highlight some of the inspirational examples of young peoples' contributions in Lancashire.

"We had an overwhelming number of nominations for the awards and it just goes to show that there are so many young people who make a positive contribution to their communities and we want these people to be encouraged and recognised."

Three youngsters from Poulton also won awards. Natalie Baron, James Lloyd and Ryan Blakeley all won the Building Bridges award.