A NEW revamped community garden in Worcester opened in glorious sunshine on Saturday.

The Arboretum Residents Group first opened the Westbury Street Community Gardens in 2007 on a derelict site on the junction between Westbury Street and Southfield Street near the canal.

The group began a campaign to raise cash to further enhance the gardens and secured funding from Tesco's Bag of Help grant scheme, £12,800 from the Department for Communities and Local Government and more than £20,000 from Worcester City Council.

On Saturday crowds turned out to see the new look, enhanced gardens.

The gardens feature planting beds, where traditional fruit, herbs, and vegetables will be grown as well as Eastern European vegetables, all for the local community to use for free.

Paving slabs have been replaced with mosaic tiles designed by local children, while games have been introduced in the area for youngsters to play, including hopscotch.

New notice boards have gone up providing game rules, as well as a history of the area.

There is also a new eye-catching sculpture at the site, created by a local artist.

Among the guests at the event were Marion and Ernie Barnes who used to live in house that was on the site of the community garden, before it was demolished in the 1970s.

The pair have continued to live in the area, now living at a property in Southfield Street.

Jane Moorhouse, chairman of the Arboretum Residents Group, said: "We have been working on this for a while, and it is great to see it come to fruition.

"It has been all about the community, talking to neighbours around here and seeing what they want.

"When I first moved round here these ground were derelict, and now they have been transformed."

She added that the plan for the future is for the gardens to become a community space holding various activities and events.