The caravan, which is run by Churches Together in Todmorden, gives young people a meeting place and it is their designs that have been incorporated into the professionally-produced smart stylish new look.

Mr Jeff Hunter, of Churches Together, said it was former youth worker Sammy Holland's idea to get the young people to work on their own designs to redecorate the caravan, which parks at the medical centre in Rose Street between 7 pm and 9 pm each Friday evening. The caravan is more than two decades old, and a new look was in order.

Sammy has had to leave to look after her partner due to illness, but at the carnival the results of her idea were seen by the public for the first time, said Jeff.

"It was Sammy's idea to begin the design work which gives the young people a feel of possession of the caravan.

“We started about nine months ago and after selecting from the designs they came up with, Oldham company thesignbox.com realised them," he said.

Jeff said thesignbox.com team deserved credit as they provided the artwork free having seen the work the caravan was doing, keeping costs as low as possible. Metro were also key to ensuring the project was completed with some funding for it, he added.

"The carnival gave many young people the chance to see the new design and it was its 'first Friday night' last weekend," said Jeff, who manned the caravan serving snacks at the carnival with his wife Brenda and Churches Together treasurer George Lambert and his wife Anne.

The caravan first went out, after a series of meetings and help from other organisation which have provided ongoing support, in September 2006.

Volunteers work in shifts with a youth worker to serve soft drinks and talk to the young people, and usually some of the young people are waiting for its arrival.

It provides a comfortable focal point for young people, said Jeff, and it is a drug-free, smoke-free, alcohol-free, violence-free, swearing and racial abuse-free zone. Although Churches Together volunteers are happy to answer questions about their religion they never preach to young people.

"We rely on talking to them, listening to their problems, answering questions if we can and playing games with them such as draughts, card games, dominoes and more, offering coffee, drinking chocolate, tea and soft drinks as well as sweets and sometimes biscuits," said Jeff.

An average of 16 young people visit the caravan each Friday and in all 132 different young people have made use of the caravan. Problems have arisen with behaviour only occasionally.

Churches Together volunteers also link up with the new Street Angels scheme in Todmorden - this runs from 9 pm to midnight following on from the popular youth caravan, with good links being made with local people, many of whom are appreciative of the work being done.