A NEW award in memory of a teenage apprentice who was killed in a car crash was unveiled at the Fenland Enterprise Business Awards.

The Trainee or Apprentice of the Year in memory of Craig Bird will be supported by Fenland District Council and was announced at the awards by council leader Alan Melton.

Craig, from March, a former student of Neale-Wade Community College, was 18 when he was killed in a two-vehicle collision in Doddington Road, Chatteris, close to the junction with the Forty Foot, on August 12.

He was an apprentice at Metalcraft in Chatteris and met Cllr Melton when the Fenland Engineering Skills Centre was opened earlier this year at the company’s factory. The centre is jointly funded by the council, Metalcraft and the East of England Development Agency.

Cllr Melton told guests at Friday’s awards: “Craig represented all that is good about youth today. He was enjoying his apprenticeship and would have been a fully fledged engineer just like his father before him.

“In honour and memory of Craig Bird and all those people who follow him and wish to be apprentices, trainees and take that step to be highly qualified, Mr and Mrs Bird gave permission for me to announce that next year there will be an additional category for Trainee or Apprentice of the Year. Nominations can come from any industry from within Fenland.

“I am sure that, ladies and gentlemen, you will agree this is a fitting tribute to a splendid young man.”