Some of Otley’s youngest citizens have drawn up plans for how they want the town to look in 20 years’ time.

Local primary school children came up with all kinds of ambitious ideas when they were asked to contribute to the Otley Neighbourhood Plan.

Their suggestions and illustrations, now on display in the foyer of the Otley Core Resource Centre, include creating a new bridge, getting boats back onto the river, and opening a child-friendly Civic Centre.

The pupils were invited to get involved by the Neighbourhood Plan steering group, and all of their ideas will be fed into the process and given serious consideration.

Group chairman, Town Councillor Mike Evans (Lab, Manor), said: “I am overawed by the amount of work that has been put into the project by all the children and also with some of the really creative solutions they’ve come up with.

“It’s great to get a fresh set of opinions, we’ve been overwhelmed by the response and look forward to including some of these ideas in the plan and implementing them.

“We’re determined that the neighbourhood plan will incorporate the views of all of Otley’s different groups, and that of course includes the children.”

Jacob Rhodes accompanied fellow school council members from Ashfield Primary, Poppy Jopson and Adam Pawsey, to the setting up of the project’s display boards last Friday, February 7.

He said: “This is about Otley in 20 years’ time and trying to make it better. We have made lots of ideas and done lots of different things for it, like poems, diagrams and maps.”

Year 5 pupils at The Whartons, meanwhile – whose representatives at the launch included Maizie Grange, Julia Gifford and Aidan Bryant – also wrote to local residents to gauge their ideas, and examined Otley’s past to see what could be built on for the future.

Westgate Primary School’s headteacher Helen Carpenter, who sits on the Neighbourhood Plan steering committee, said: “Every single child from Year 1 to Year 6 has had a say in our work for this.

“We started it off in an assembly and after that there was no stopping them! We got the pupils to come up with six things they liked about Otley and six things they’d like to improve, and they really got into it.”

Town Councillor Mary Vickers (Lib Dem, Prince Henry) added: “We want the children to be involved in the plan because, 20 years on, it will be their town. We thought this was a good way to get them involved and contribute to what could result in some major projects in the future.”

Leaflets asking residents for their views, meanwhile, are due to be delivered over the next few weeks to further help the steering group identify which issues people feel are key in the coming years.

A preview event, featuring the leaflet’s questions, was held at the Core on Wednesday.

Neighbourhood Plans are intended to empower communities so they have more say in how their area develops, and have to be considered by developers before they submit a planning application.