A BRIERLEY Hill student has spoken of his “surprise” at winning the MP’s Christmas card competition.

Stourbridge College art student Aaron-Ryan Samra designed the card for MP Margot James which features a host of Stourbridge landmarks as decorations on a Christmas tree, with presents underneath.

Conservative MP Ms James (whose constituency covers Dudley Wood) picked the winning entry through her annual competition, which challenged students to create artwork linked to Stourbridge.

Aaron-Ryan, who is half way through a one-year art and design foundation diploma course at Stourbridge College’s Art and Design Centre in Brierley Hill, said: “It was a bit of a surprise to find out my design was the winner.

"I worked on my entry in between other coursework and also spent some time after hours finishing it off, so I’m happy the extra work paid off and that Margot liked it so much.

"Everything about my design related to Stourbridge. It’s nice to be able to create something that people can immediately recognise, but that’s been done in a whole new way.”

Ms James said: “The standard of the entries was incredibly high this year, and it was not an easy decision to make.

"However, Aaron’s card stood out because it featured many of the sites we know and love around Stourbridge in a unique tribute to the town.

"I’ve been running this competition for many years and it always gives me great pleasure to see the wealth of talent emanating from the groups that take part in it, whether from community groups, primary schools, secondary, specialist or sixth forms.

"My congratulations go to Aaron-Ryan, along with thanks to the other students that took part in the competition.”

Students Oliver Warner and Esme Rowe, both 18, from Stourbridge, were named runners-up in the competition.

Their design consisted of a hand-rendered drawing of a snow globe showing Stourbridge landmarks on a winter’s day.