Any Blue Peter presenter in their heyday would’ve been proud of this impressive sculpture – a model tractor made out of cola cans.

The piece has been made from 380 drinks cans and will be displayed in Chatteris at the Wenny Road ‘roundabout’ as the town prepares for the Britain in Bloom competition.

Heather Johnson, who created the sculpture, said she was “inundated” with drinks cans after she put out an appeal for materials on Facebook for the project.

She said: “The community was so on board. There was an amazing response over social media and I was inundated with cans.

“I was driving around collecting them from various people’s homes, others dropped theirs off at my door. It’s just as well we had so many because I needed them all for the tractor."

She added: “From the feedback I’ve received so far, everyone is impressed with the result.”

Heather came up with the idea when the Chatteris In Bloom committee launched a competition for the community to create a plant pot sculpture.

Rather than using plant pots, she thought about creating her own sculpture using drinks cans instead.

Once she had the cans, it took her between two and three hours to build the tractor one afternoon.

An apprentice at Ben Burgess in Coates then painted it in the distinctive colours of distinctive John Deere tractors.

Heather added: “The display at the Wenny Road ‘roundabout’ is based around our area’s heritage in farming.

“There’s more traditional farmers which have been made of wicker and the cola can tractor will represent more modern farming methods.”

Chatteris is one of five locations selected from the Anglia region to enter the national Britain in Bloom competition this year.

The town was awarded Gold in the regional Anglia in Bloom 2019 – but the committee was still surprised to find out they had been put forward to compete at a national level.

As well as stunning displays of horticulture, community is an important aspect of the competition and judges are keen to see residents getting involved in projects.

Last year, the competition was held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.