ISLAND sixth formers are helping an artist to create a mural in a former railway tunnel in Newport.

Nina Camplin has been commissioned by the Isle of Wight Council's highways department to transform a 22-metre section of the tunnel that provides a pedestrain walkway under Fairlee Road, linking the Riverside Centre with Victoria Road.

Nina is being helped in her artwork by sixth formers from Medina High School. Her mural will depict one of the Island's famous O2 tank locomotives which used the tunnel until the railway closed in 1966. She is also painting a mural of the white cliffs of Freshwater in the tunnel.

Nina began her task last Tuesday and made steady progress - despite strong gusts of wind threatening to tip over pots of paints and a step ladder.

It is hoped the murals will deter vandals who have sprayed the tunnel with unsightly graffiti.

After the mural has been completed, the entire artwork will be covered with a special anti-vandal coating, which will enable any future graffiti to be removed without damage to the murals.

Nina said: "I decided the murals on each wall should depict well-known Isle of Wight scenes."

Only part of the cement-rendered part of the tunnel is suitable for Nina's work. The remainder of the tunnel, which was originally built for the Newport to Ryde railway, is faced with dark brickwork.

Co-ordinating the work on behalf of the council is the Island's Platform One organisation. Director David Pontin explained that Poole-based Nina was chosen because of her experience of doing community murals and working with young people.

Work she has done in the past has included murals in pedestrian underpasses in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

Highway engineer Mark Dean said that when funds permit, it was hoped to also have anti-graffiti murals painted on the walls of the nearby subway under Medina Way, the subway leading to the Isle of Wight College at Dodnor and a subway at Perowne Way in Sandown.