A CHARITY which supports blind people in the borough will create a new sensory garden thanks to a £12,000 grant from the parent company of the Bury Times and Radcliffe Times.

Bury Society for the Blind and Partially Sighted People was successful in its application to charitable trust, The Gannett Foundation, which has handed out grants of more than £4 million across the UK in the past 10 years.

The grant will pay for the sensory garden, to be located at the front of the group's site in Tenterden Street, which will include raised beds to allow people to sit beside the plants to touch and smell them, fencing around the garden, and a water feature.

Jill Logan, chief executive officer of the society, said: "It is fantastic. We applied for £12,000 and I never expected that we would get all of the money.

"Everything in the garden is going to be very tactile and smell orientated. Gardening is associated with sight and appreciating the beauty of the plants, but we aim to make it accessible for our members as well."

The society welcomes about 150 people come through its doors every week, and Mrs Logan said the garden will provide a range of benefits to its members.

She added: "It's absolutely devastating to lose your sight, and we try to support people and help them realise their life is not over.

"This garden will help people to feel better in themselves, psychologically as well as being a much-needed place for people to relax."