A schoolgirl with a flair for art has scooped top prize in a festive competition which had more than 1,000 entrants.

Lily-Anne Williams, aged 10, was presented with first prize in the Flintshire category of the contest set up by Ifor Williams Trailers which has factories in Deeside and Denbighshire.

The Year Six pupil of Sandycroft CP School was overjoyed to learn she had triumphed in the fun-filled colouring competition.

The firm offered schoolchildren across the county a chance to get creative by designing costumes for the seasonal characters which make up the annual  Christmas display at each of its six factories.

Ifor Williams Trailers (IWT) HR Manager Helen Cliffe said a collection of life-size tableaux have been sculpted from metal to decorate the perimeter of each of IWT’s six factory sites in Flintshire and Denbighshire.

They feature a Christmas tree and fun characters including an elf and a snowman. In Flintshire pride of place goes to a ‘Nutcracker’ soldier figure for which Lily-Anne designed the imaginative costume.

In all, 22 schools across Flintshire and Denbighshire took part in the competition with at grand total of 1,132 individual entries submitted for consideration by the super-impressed Ifor Williams Trailers judging panel.

The dazzling, illuminated Nutcracker display in the unmissable red and gold colours chosen by Lily-Anne is now turning the heads of anyone passing the IWT factory in Sandycroft, Deeside.

Lily-Anne, of Mancot, says the factory is not far away from her school and so she is excited for her school pals and her parents, Andy and Sian, to see the design all lit up.

Helen Cliffe said: “You can certainly tell that Lily-Anne has an artistic flair as well as an eye for fashion. Her ideas for the colours for this costume were stand-out, really striking and everyone agreed it was a winner.”

Lily-Anne was presented with a gleaming trophy engraved with her name and a miniature replica of the winning Nutcracker design mounted on it.

She also won a festive goodie bag from Ifor Williams Trailers, which is Britain’s leading manufacturer of trailers.

The prizes were presented by Jak Tyrer, Ifor Williams Trailers Production Manager who visited Sandycroft CP with Helen Cliffe on the day of the school’s annual Christmas party, adding to the excitement of the occasion.

Jak said: “Ifor Williams Trailers has always had a policy of supporting the local communities in which we are based and reaching out to local schools to help us with this Christmas competition was a great way of doing that.

“I want to congratulate Lily-Anne on her fantastic design and I’m thrilled to present the trophy to her. I am told by her schoolteachers than she has a real passion for art and that is certainly clear from the detail of her winning design.

“We were astounded by the number of entries we had for this competition especially as it is the first time we have asked local schools to help us with the creative process for our Christmas themed decorations. The response has been tremendous, much more than we originally anticipated. As a result I’m sure we will be doing something similar again next year.

“The nutcracker does look splendid now that it has been illuminated for the holiday season. It is a stunner which brings a smile to the faces of everyone coming to work or visiting our Deeside site.”

Sandycroft CP School teaching assistant Natalie Forshaw said everyone at the school was delighted about Lily-Anne’s win.

She said: “She loves art and is very talented at it too, often taking part in the colouring activities we do in the school’s Jig-saw Club. She always comes up with lots of eye-catching ideas. This will be a real confidence booster for her and I hope encourage her to continue making more great artworks in the years to come.”

Lily-Anne who has an elder brother, Jordan, and big sister Hannah, said she was especially pleased to have won the competition in what will be her last year at Sandycroft CP School.

She said: “I’m in Year Six now so will be moving up to high school next year. It’s great to have something like this happen now, a wonderful memory of my last year at Sandycroft CP school.”