Nine children’s community projects in Essex have entered a competition to win a £10,000 makeover of their premises. The projects include nurseries, infant schools and sports clubs, among them four from Colchester and two from Braintree.

The 'All Hands on Dec' competition is being run by East Anglian building supplies and decorators’ merchant Kent Blaxill in conjunction with Crown Paints.

Members of the public have until midnight on July 6 to vote for their favourite project by logging on to https://allhandsondec.kentblaxill.co.uk/entries/

Local tradesmen are volunteering their time to carry out the facelift work on the winning building during September.

The nine projects are:

• The Archer Community Centre Outdoor Room (Braintree)

• Montgomery Infant School Demountable Renovation Project (Colchester)

• Southview Front Entrance and Playground Fencing (Witham)

• Wethersfield Village Hall Refurbishment Fund (Braintree)

• Straight Road Community Centre (Colchester)

• Shorefields Play Equipment (Clacton)

• Nannas Day Nurseries (Colchester)

• Baddow Spartak Club House (Sandon, Chelmsford)

• Earls Colne Recreation Club (Earls Colne, Colchester)

James Park, Kent Blaxill commercial director, said: “We have had nine very worthwhile entries and we are hoping now that members of the public will vote for their favourite project to help the judges in reaching a decision.”

The winning project will be announced on July 14th.