AS GEORGE Osborne held up the red box outside one of the country's most famous addresses on Wednesday, March 16, he couldn't have known that he was facing some tough competition.

For students in East Dorset were handed responsibility for £1,000 of their district council budget as part of a day-long exercise focusing on local government in mid-March.

Eight youngsters from Ferndown Upper School and QE School in Wimborne helped council chair Councillor Steve Lugg decide where the money should be allocated.

After putting forward some initial ideas, the students were invited to the council offices in Furzehill to discuss their suggestions and agree on a winning idea.

They were joined by Cllr Lugg and officers from the council, as well as the High Sherriff of Dorset, Jennifer Coombs.

Students suggested a number of projects, including a road safety initiative based around Volvo LifePaint, a substance that's invisible during the day but glows white in car headlights, and plans to promote the weekly run at Moors Valley Country Park.

After a debate, the students decided to combine the two ideas by holding a night-time run at Moors Valley where participants could be sprayed with LifePaint to promote the product.

As runners dashed around the course, they would be illuminated by lights placed in the park.

Cllr SLugg said: “This was a very inspiring exercise and I’m very grateful for the hard work that the students undertook to come up with a decision in such a short space of time.

"This sort of event brings to life for the students the spending decisions which councillors have to make on a regular basis using the scarcer resources being allocated every year.”

Steve Collins, enterprise coordinator at QE, said: “This exercise has given the students an understanding of how they can have an influence on decision-making.

"You never know where some of their ideas may go in the future.”

Sarah Bird, assistant head at Ferndown Upper School, added: “This was a very real exercise in which they had to think deeply about what would make a good project.

"Although the students from the two schools hadn’t met before they worked together well to come up with great ideas.

"It shows that if you give students an opportunity they will fly with it."