Pictured above: The competition winner, Paul Metcalfe Smith - Wildgoose Health and Safety Manager, Ken Dodd - Barnsley Council principal Health and Safety Officer

A schoolgirl won the unique opportunity to name a street at a housing development being built by Derbyshire firm Wildgoose Construction.

Arthifa Thasrif, 10, of Wilthorpe Junior School, Barnsley, designed the winning poster in a competition to highlight health and safety on building sites.

As the overall winner she was given the opportunity to name a street on the development and she chose Pleasant View Croft.

Pupils at Wilthorpe Junior School were invited to take part in the competition because the homes are being built close to their school.

Arthifa's poster and two other winning entries from the school are also being displayed at the building site.

Wildgoose Construction is building 14 houses in a £1.3m deal with Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and Berneslai Homes. 

There will be seven affordable homes, three bungalows and four flats. The homes should be completed by November 2011.

Tim Walker, managing director at Wildgoose, said the company always tried to involve the local community in its construction projects to give them a sense of ownership once the build was complete.

He said: "We also like to engage and educate school children of the dangers of construction and construction sites and to this end, our health and safety manager regularly attends school assemblies to address the children.

"We are especially pleased that the children at Wilthorpe School related to this project in such a positive manner, with the majority of pupils entering the competition to name the road, through the design of a health and safety poster. The results were of such a high standard that we found it very hard to select an overall winner.

"We hope that our early engagement with these children will have highlighted to them the dangers of entering a live building site, but also to allow them consider a career in the construction industry when they complete their academic training." 

Rachel Harris, Year 5 teacher at Wilthorpe Junior School, said they were thrilled that Arthifa had been given such a unique opportunity.

She said: "We are delighted that Arthifa won the competition. Our pupils all enjoyed designing a poster to promote safety around building sites and were very excited to be given the unique opportunity to name a street in Barnsley."

Mel Asquith, project manager at Berneslai Homes, said: "All the entries from the school children were absolutely fantastic, and I know it was really hard to pick the winner out from all 131 drawings submitted.  

"Berneslai Homes are really keen to involve local communities in their projects, so to have this competition and the winner to name the new street was a good way of doing this, as well as reminding children the dangers of playing on construction sites".