Sophie Barnes earns Blue Peter Badge

Sophie Barnes earns Blue Peter Badge

Environmentally conscious Sophie Barnes earned herself a green Blue Peter Badge for an eye-catching poster to persuade dog owners to be responsible.

Sophie, a Year 7 student at Whitworth Community High School, began watching the programme a couple of years ago.

The 12-year-old said: “I really care about the environment. I have held a lot of charity events and organised litter picking in local parks and flower planting.

“When I was at Primary School I was a member of the gardening club and when I visit my grandma in Chadderton we help to litter pick a local park.

“My poster was A3 size and it had the slogan, ‘They can’t use the loo, so pick up the poo’.

“I wrote into Blue Peter and sent the poster along with a letter telling them about all the different things I do and they sent a badge back.”

Sophie is passionate about stopping the expansion of cities at the cost of the few patches of green space that are left.

She said: “We need to stop all the new estate building; if the empty homes were filled we wouldn’t need all these new houses.

“I just want areas to stay green so young children can grow up in a nice environment without it all being built up.”

She hopes to one day have her own shop full of upcycled goods that she has created herself.