A 12-YEAR-OLD schoolgirl from Bolton will address 2,000 delegates at a top summit attended by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

Elizabeth Bowcock, from Thornleigh School, will be the only young person on the all-adult panel at the three-day conference at GMEX in Manchester.

And on Tuesday she will put forward her own ideas on how to keep the streets safe for young people.

Elizabeth, who will be preparing her speech this weekend, said she was excited at the prospect of addressing Mr Prescott's "Delivering Sustainable Communities" summit.

She was specially selected by the Deputy Prime Minister's office to take part.

The youngster, from the Oldhams estate, is a member of Bolton's Green Generation who are involved in environmental activities in the town.

"One of my ideas will be to get rid of alleyways to keep children safe," said Elizabeth who lives with her mum, Sally, dad John and sister Kathleen, aged 15.

"I will be sitting on the stage with Mr Prescott, MPs and other guests," said Elizabeth who wants to be an historical restorer or actress when she grows up.

And seven other young Green generation members aged between 10 and 16 will take part in the Youth Summit part of the conference on Monday, along with 150 young people from across the UK.

The conference will discuss Mr Prescott's five-year "Sustainable Communities: People, Places and Prosperity" plan. It will be the largest event of its kind ever held in the UK.

Cllr David Wilkinson, Bolton Council's Liberal Democrat member for Westhoughton South, will be attending the conference, along with council leader Barbara Ronson.

"There are discussions taking place about transport, housing development, the environment and regeneration, all of which are tied together in Bolton," said Cllr Wilkinson.

"There will be a number of worldwide experts in these fields who will be speaking, and we want to see what ideas others have had. Hopefully we can bring something back from the conference which will help to resolve some of the issues we have here in Bolton."

Cllr Wilkinson said he was particularly interested in the regeneration of housing.

"We have problems with the quality of some of the housing stock in Bolton," he said. "There are buildings that are not fit for habitation, but we do not have the budget to put them right. How do we, as a local authority, address these issues?

"We're not like some of our neighbours in Manchester, Salford and Blackburn, who were awarded Pathfinder status to regenerate their housing stock. We have to find a different method, and there are speakers next week who may have ideas that we can adapt."