Brightly decorated buildings and gardens in Barking and Dagenham could win prizes this summer.

The town hall is calling on the community to decorate doors, fancify fences and make gardens glow as part of its “brighten up the borough” campaign.

It comes ahead of the annual Summer of Festivals programme, which offers a host of free entertainment in the borough.

%image(14874424, type="article-full", alt="This "crochet tree" at Barking Folk Festival could be inspiration for brightening up the borough this summer.")

Deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for community leadership and engagement, Cllr Saima Ashraf, said: “We’re asking you all to think bold and think bright.

"Let’s all have a bit of light-hearted entertainment and produce some colourful creations for everyone to enjoy.”

The campaign is running from Friday, June 18 until Tuesday, August 31.

Visit www.lbbd.gov.uk/brightentheborough to download free, specially-designed activity packs created by Grape Arts and Wildsuga, supported by Dagenham’s The White House.

To be in the running for a prize, hopeful entants should submit photos and videos of their creations to summeroffestivals@lbbd.gov.uk by Saturday, July 10.