Viking Centre official garden opening

The official opening of the newly revamped Viking Centre garden took place on Saturday 24 June.

Staff and volunteers held a summer garden party to celebrate the garden being completely transformed, thanks to funding secured through the Tesco Bags of Help scheme. £8,000 was awarded to the Viking Centre in December 2016 to spend on revamping the garden area of the centre.

The garden was opened by Sgt James Main, chair of the Ongo Communities Board who before the event said: “I’m delighted to be asked to open the garden and recognise all the hard work of the volunteers, residents and Ongo Staff.

“We are really grateful for the funding that Tesco has given to this project which will be enjoyed by all the local residents. It’s always good to see more facilities and activities added to the developments in the communities. It brings residents together and provides them with an area the whole community can enjoy.”

The £8,000 was used to completely transform the Back Garden and in addition create a new Kitchen Garden for all residents to access and utilise, with the work being carried out by our Growing and Learning manager John Cavill and Birtwhistle Landscaping; however credit must go to the numerous volunteers who have supported the project.

There day included games, activities, refreshments, music and a plant sale for people of all ages living in and around the Caistor Road area of Barton.

Grace Woolley, Youth Mentor at Ongo, said: “We’re delighted that the garden is now officially open here at the Viking Centre. It looks fantastic and a lot of hard work has gone in completely transforming our outside space to make it somewhere everyone really can enjoy.

“The funding we received from Tesco was amazing and meant we really could create somewhere that people would enjoy using and take pride in. We’ve got lots of plans for more workshops and fun sessions to take place outdoors and now we have a brilliant space to do them.”