TEENAGER Vicki Stansfield is Bolton's first Citizen of Tomorrow after winning the maiden Millennium award for young people.

The Harper Green pupil will be kicking off the scheme set up to give youngsters a once in a lifetime chance to do something worthwhile by looking at Farnworth past and future.

She has won £6,750 to cover the cost of a project which will examine how the town has changed over the past century and what it might look like in the next.

It is the first of about 135 Millennium grants which will be made to widen the horizons of young people in Bolton as part of the Year 2000 celebrations.

Vicki, 16, and a team of friends will carry out extensive interviews with local people to compile a professionally produced book of living history for her Democracy in Action venture.

A second group of friends will put on a play about women's struggle for democracy and another team will design a city for the future.

Project

Vicki said: "It will involve a broad spectrum of people in the community, from every generation and will, I hope, grip people's imagination.

"I wanted to do two things with the project - firstly to celebrate and commemorate, in some way, life in this area over the last century.

"Secondly, to look forward into the new Millennium to the kind of world we want to live in."

Bolton is the only town in the North-west to win funding for the Millennium Awards for young people and organiser Mark Shields has £400,000 to hand out over a three year period.

Several other youngsters are at the final stages of the application process for the grants which have to satisfy strict criteria and be approved by a local panel and the Millennium Commission.

Anyone aged 11 to 25 can submit their ideas to Mr Shields who will advise them on putting in a detailed application. He can be reached on 01204 840636.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.