A GIANT Connect-4 and swing-ball sets are some of the equipment now on offer to visitors of Leominster's Grange Court.

The LARC Development Trust – which owns the former market hall – successfully applied for funding from the Kingspan Insulation Community Trust to repeat and extend the success of last year’s summer activity programme.

Part of the £1,607 grant was used to purchase new sports equipment and educational garden games, including small goal posts, a giant Connect-4 and swing ball sets.

The equipment will be available for any group to use throughout the year, encouraging local children to get involved with the trust’s work and keep active.

The second part of their application for funding involved improving the grounds of Grange Court.

Councillor Angela Pendleton, also from the LARC Development Trust, said: “Once we started to make improvements to the gardens and began to work with the soil, it became apparent that it needed much more attention than originally anticipated.

"The building work had left the garden in a poor state with rubble, sub soil and a selection of pernicious weeds. The shape of the flower beds and wild corners also needed much improvement, with considerate planting in order to create a successful habitat for birds, amphibians and insects.”

The initial layout and design was carried out by Penny Usher, and then taken over by a voluntary organisation called The Grangers, headed up by garden designer Anne Smithells.

A team of six people worked tirelessly every week to restore the inner garden with old fashioned roses, aromatic perennials such as Nepeta and Hissop, purchased with the grant money.

Cllr Pendleton added: "The gardens now set off this very auspicious building, so that it can be heralded as an icon for Leominster."

For more more about the trust visit KingspanInsulationCommunityTrust.org