Thank you to the trees for new room

10:51am Thursday 24th April 2008

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THE Walton Lea Project has opened its new garden room - a structure built out of wood instead of bricks.

Around 50 people attended the official opening on Friday.

The Walton Lea Project is a horticultural employment project which gives real job opportunities to people with learning disabilities.

The new extension to its site, at Chester Road, Higher Walton, was funded by a WREN (Waste Recycling Environmental) grant and will enable the project to extend its services.

Aarco, the company that built the timber room, used 100 trees for the development and planted 200 to avoid causing harm to the environment.

Mary Barbour, development manager of the project, said: "About 50 people came to the opening and we thanked the trees and made a toast for the future of the building.

"A plaque was unveiled from WREN who gave us the grant to enable the building."

It is hoped that the facilities, which include a meeting room, a kitchen, toilets and an office, will be used to hold workshops, talks and visits.

She added: "The extension allows us to offer different learning opportunities for them. They can be involved in showing people what they have learned and we want our learners to show off what they know and let members of the public join in."