HELENSBURGH Garelochside Rotary Club has received more than 3,500 entries to its COP26 poster competition.

The local charity, which strives to create lasting change through community projects, set up the competition ahead of the climate change conference taking place in Glasgow at the end of October.

A nationwide call for entries saw school children from across the UK and Ireland submit posters to their local rotary clubs intended to show COP26 delegates what climate change means to them.

And the Helensburgh club will now decide who is the winner, after entries flooded in from across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A club spokesperson said: “We thought it was important that we gave support to the COP26 event and it was decided to run a poster competition, similar to our internet safety competition, to give primary school aged children the opportunity to convey a message to the delegates attending from all over the world.

“This message would also be given to the public and give an opportunity for Rotary in Great Britain to promote its focus on the environment - its new area of focus.

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“We invited each area to run their own local competition and submit their best two entries to us for the national final. Consequently, we do not know the exact number of entries, but based on the information received, such as the West Midlands District receiving about 1,000 entries and up to 60 posters being received from individual schools, we conservatively estimate that more than 125 schools took part and submitted more than 3,800 posters.

“These posters show the world exactly what our children think about climate change and the action that should be taken to protect the world for future generations and it is important that we convey the message to a wide audience.

“We have already displayed entries received from Rotary Clubs in the West of Scotland at our annual conference held on October 1, at the Golden Jubilee Hotel in Clydebank.

“In addition, we have been invited to mount eight further displays during the period of COP26 and beyond.”

The rotary club will announce the winners during COP26, which starts on October 31.