Mia’s logo is the pride of Westham (From Dorset Echo)

Mia’s logo is the pride of Westham

12:17pm Friday 5th October 2007 in

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A new logo designed for Westham to celebrate the Weymouth community's 125-year anniversary has been designed by an eight-year-old schoolgirl.

The image will be used to help raise the profile of the area and it will also be used for the Westham Community Orientated Problem Solving (COPS) community group.

Mia Haden won a competition open to 11,000 people to design a logo to celebrate the creation of Westham 125 years ago, and incorporate symbols from the area.

She said: "It was fun drawing the logo for Westham and my grandad was helping me come up with the ideas."

Borough council spokesman for community engagements and partnerships Councillor David Harris said: "Congratulations to Mia. Her design shows a sense of pride in where she comes from and it will be a recognisable symbol for the community by contributing to a sense of identity for Westham."

The area was originally called West Ham, which became Westham.

The winning design contains various elements of Westham's history and makeup and it features two Ws to represent both Westham and Weymouth.

The wording Westham Powering Weymouth' refers to the fact that Westham was where Weymouth's first ever power station was built.

The stars are based on those from the Australian and New Zealand flag because of the link from the First World War when more than 120,000 injured Anzac troops were sent to medical camps in and around Westham.

The Weymouth Cemetery in Westham contains hundreds of graves from the soldiers that died.

Community development worker Julie Hursthouse was a judge for the competition and said the quality of entries was very high.

She added: "Projects like this are great as they help to instil a sense of pride for Westham, and also people learn what the area is about."

The competition winner was announced at the Rock Hotel on the anniversary of the first ever residents' meeting in 1882 when the name West Ham was chosen for the area.

Westham COPS tackles issues in the community such as anti-social behaviour and criminality by involving the residents to enhance the lives of those in the community.