Major issues of the day are regularly dealt with by Hartlepool Mail editor Joy Yates, Hartlepool MP Iain Wright and the town's Mayor Stuart Drummond.

But finding just one winner from 20 top-class entries in a design competition proved just as difficult.

The trio were tasked with judging artwork submitted by primary schoolchildren.

Each of the youngsters came up with designs to be considered as the artwork for the front of a CD.

The eventual winner was chosen as St John Vianney School pupil Lucy Walsh.

Her entry showed flames, handcuffs and the message Stop It All. She will be given £60 in music vouchers while her school will receive £5,000 of crime prevention measures.

Runner-up was Lucy Horsley from Clavering Primary School who receives a £40 music voucher.

All the schools were given a design brief of coming up with artwork depicting crime prevention and fire prevention.

The competition was part of an innovative music project in which children are recording songs for a CD which aims to tell people about the effects of crime and ways that they can help prevent crime.

More than 1,000 pupils from twenty-nine primary and secondary schools across Hartlepool are working with local music charity The Studio to write and perform their own songs – all with a crime prevention and fire prevention theme.

The songs cover topics such as personal safety, why people commit crime, criminal damage, anti-social behaviour, fire safety, and the portrayal of young people.

Studio manager Liz Carter said the standard of entries for the CD artwork was "very good. The children had taken on board the design brief and the winning entry was especially good."

The CD will feature 32 songs and be released on April 16.