A DISTRICT-WIDE football tournament between police and young people has been hailed a success.

Last Friday, the first ever Braintree District 999 football tournament was held at the Discovery Centre at Great Notley Country Park.

About 50 pupils from five secondary schools took part in the event, including Ramsey Academy, Honywood Community Science School, Tabor Academy, Alec Hunter Academy and Notley High School.

The event was supported by Braintree Community Safety Partnership, the Discovery Centre, Kick It Out and Tesco Great Notley.

Coggeshall’s Honywood Community Science School came first, with Braintree’s Tabor Academy second and Halstead’s Ramsey Academy third.

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Insp Jenna Mirrington-French, of Braintree community policing team, said: “Our tournament was a great opportunity for Braintree officers and staff from other organisations to meet and speak with young people across our district and build a positive experience with them through sport.

“Each team had police officers or PCSOs with them and so the students could make up their own minds about what police officers are like, rather than reading the opinions of others on social media.

“The students had a lot of questions to ask us, ranging from what it’s like to be a police officer, what powers officers have and how we use various bits of our equipment to keep themselves safe and what to do if they witness a crime. We certainly enjoyed ourselves and we hope the teams did, too.”