STUDENTS from Warrington high schools have been fighting it out in a competition to think of ways to bring more tourists to the town.

The 12 high schools and two colleges battled it out in a day-long competition to raise awareness of the Pathfinder programme, which tackles skills shortages among young people.

The Lionheart Challenge set the teams a task to conceive and create a leisure product that would bring in more tourists.

Birchwood High School students swept to victory at the event, which was held at their school.

The team and their facilitator Karen Fairclough, sales manager at The Holiday Inn, were judged to have the scheme most likely to attract investors and succeed.

Ben Caldwell was chairman of the judges and is also chief executive the Caldwells Group and president of Warrington Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He said: "What we've seen here today is young people producing in one day, ideas and business plans which some companies and organisations would take months to develop. It really has been inspiring."

Working alongside senior figures from the town's business community the teams had to devise a feasible plan, draw up promotional and marketing strategies and calculate the building and running costs of the projects.

Teams estimated potential profits and considered the environmental and traffic impact that their schemes would have on the town.