St Polycarp’s schoolboy Oliver Barnes, 10, has been crowned winner of the Herald’s ‘Jot an Otter’ competition, with his design now set to line up on Farnham’s new Otter Wey Trail this summer.

The Herald launched the contest in February, inviting young artists to design an otter for Farnham’s new community art project.

Oliver scooped the top prize for his “cheeky schoolboy” otter, donning shorts and a blazer, a shirt and school tie, with sweets from Oliver’s favourite shop Mr Simms in Downing Street and a catapult in his pockets.

Inspired by the colours of his current school St Polycarp’s in Waverley Lane and the blazers of All Hallows, where Oliver will begin secondary school this September, the otter is also wearing a school cap and rucksack, and is holding a mobile phone.

Oliver, whose mum Jen is a marketing executive at Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice, told the Herald he drew his otter to reflect his own cheeky personality, adding he “can’t wait” to see his finished design on the trail.

The Otter Wey Trail is being led by artist Jo Aylwin of Bloomin’ Arts, an initiative of Farnham in Bloom, supported by Farnham Town Council, Farnham Lions, Farnham Pottery and the Surrey Wildlife Trust.

It invites schoolchildren, art groups, voluntary organisations and businesses to sponsor and design and paint life-sized models of otters to be installed in a trail in and around the town early this summer.

A number of finished otters have already popped up in shops around the town, including Between the Lines (pictured below), The Travelling Bazaar, A Plan insurance and Burns and Webber estate agents.

At the end of the project, many of the otter models will be sold or auctioned with proceeds being shared between the mayor’s charities The Woodlarks Centre and the Brightwells Gostrey Community Centre.

For more information visit the website www.theotterwey.org.uk.