LOCAL schoolchildren took control of Lancaster City Council's £12 million budget last week and spent the lot!

But rather than splashing out on more playground rides and bags of sweets the 120 youngsters were rather sensible and made sure the district's essential services got most of the cash.

The Pupil Power day was organised to celebrate Local Democracy Week with a local government version of the popular Pokemon cards game.

Split into groups, the children were given £12m to spend on a variety of council services but there was just one snag... they couldn't afford to buy them all.

The mock-budget meeting generated vigorous debate amongst the youngsters who were forced to debate which services were priority and hold votes in order to obtain a majority decision.

Some were perilously close to running out of money but in the end all managed to stay within budget and make the tough decisions necessary.

Surprisingly almost all of the children - from Overton St Helens Primary, West End County Primary School and St Lukes Primary, Slyne Road - decided to do without luxuries such as play facilities and festivals and instead concentrate their money on essential services such as council housing, planning control and waste collection.

At the same time a mock election was being held to educate children about the election process. Four councillors stood as MPs all hoping to be elected as children's prime minister. All the candidates were given an opportunity to appeal to the youngsters and encourage them to vote for them before the children went to the polling booths to cast their votes.

MP for Fun candidate - Lancaster City Councillor Shelia Denwood - was elected as Children's Prime Minister after she promised the children 'everything they wanted!'

Commenting on the event the Mayor of Lancaster, Cllr Pat Quinton, said: "This was very much a two way learning process. These children are tomorrow's voters and this kind of exercise allows Lancaster City Council to engage with the future electorate at an early stage. Hopefully, from their point of view they learnt about the democratic process and how difficult some decisions are. From our point of view we hope that when they grow up they will value the vital contribution they have to make in local democracy."

All the children were asked to fill in a card "What I would do if I were in charge for a day." Their answers and photographs from the event are currently on display in Lancaster Town Hall reception and make interesting reading.