PLANS for a floating multimedia studio for young people in Huntingdonshire have been shortlisted for a national televised competition with �60,000 of lottery cash up for grabs.

PLANS for a floating multimedia studio for young people in Huntingdonshire have been shortlisted for a national televised competition with �60,000 of lottery cash up for grabs.

The “Get Creative, Get Afloat” project from St Ives charity Young Lives is one of six on the shortlist for the Jubilee People’s Millions competition later this month, where a public vote will decide the lucky winners.

The charity hopes the plans for a multimedia studio aboard a steel barge will capture the public’s imagination and help the charity win the cash jackpot.

The barge would be moored in Huntingdon or St Ives, and youngsters would be involved in the design and development. It would move around the region, allowing youngsters to learn new skills, boosting their confidence and finding out about their Cambridgeshire surroundings first hand.

Lynn Hogarth, the charity’s chief executive, said: “There will be an area where young people can work, record and edit, and a relaxing area where they can socialise.

“The really important thing is that the young people will be part of the design process.”

The charity hopes the project will have two or three “phases”, with young people coming to the boat to socialise, to learn multimedia skills, and also to help hands-on in the upkeep and maintenance of the barge.

Ms Hogarth added: “We decided to be innovative and imaginative with our proposal. This is a project about people, and getting different parts and ages of the community together.”

As part of the competition, run by the Big Lottery Fund to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee next year, the six projects will be featured on Anglia News between June 27 and 29.

The public will choose between “Get Creative, Get Afloat” and a Norfolk wheelchair basketball club that needs new equipment, to decide which should receive the �60,000.

Losing projects will get a second chance, as a fourth �60,000 prize will go to the runner-up project that receives the most telephone votes throughout the week.

Without the cash jackpot, Ms Hogarth said, Young Lives would have to look at alternative funding routes, or rely on personal donations.

“The ‘Get Creative, Get Afloat’ project is something exciting and different – bringing together nature and environment with the multimedia side of things – and we hope that people will really get behind it.”

INFORMATION: A trailer for the “Get Creative, Get Afloat” can be seen at www.young-lives.org.uk