Children brought aboard campaign on tram yobbery

METROLINK and police patrolling at the King Street stop in Oldham

OLDHAM schoolchildren are being brought on board efforts to tackle antisocial behaviour and fare dodging on trams.

Transport for Greater Manchester is asking around 800 schools in Greater Manchester to take part in a competition to create an advertisement as part of a clampdown campaign.

It follows the huge success of last year’s pilot programme, when Transport for Greater Manchester invited selected schools along the tram network to produce 60-second commercials that competed for views on social media.

A specially created online tool kit will help pupils aged between nine and 14 years old ­— years five to nine ­— learn more about the impact of vandalism, crime and antisocial behaviour on Metrolink, which led to a repairs bill of nearly £73,000 last year.

Digital engagement agency Ucreate will again support the competition, holding sessions to teach schoolchildren how to create their audio or visual commercial and promote it on social media.

The winning advert will be used in a forthcoming marketing campaign to raise awareness of the impact of antisocial behaviour and fare dodging.

Home ­— Manchester’s international centre for contemporary art, theatre and film – are partnering the project for a second time with the short-listed commercials to be shown on the big screen.

Home’s artistic director of film, Jason Wood, said: “We’re delighted to support this great competition. The quality of last year’s entries was fantastic and we’re looking forward to meeting this year’s young filmmakers and showing their work on Home’s big screen.”

Last year Droylsden’s Fairfield High School for Girls picked up the winning prize for their hard-hitting radio commercial about the penalties for fare evasion ­— “Stop, think, take pride in your Metrolink!” ­— which had more than 2,000 views on YouTube.

TfGM’s Metrolink director, Peter Cushing, said: “We know tackling antisocial behaviour is important for our customers and while the Travelsafe Unit is doing a great job on the ground, education is also key to prevention.

“The success of last year’s competition pilot demonstrated that educating schoolchildren in a fun and enjoyable way works.”

“Unfortunately, we have seen the conduct of increasingly younger people result in disruption to customer journeys, by causing damage to our trams.”

Ucreate’s operations manager, Mark Matthews, said: “It’s great to be working with Metrolink again and helping get these really important issues out to young people.

Entries will be shortlisted next month and promoted on TFGM’s YouTube channel, Facebook page and Twitter: @OfficialTfGM and @MCRMetrolink.