An innovative gardening project helping people in the borough with mental health problems is in the running to win a national award.

Dudley Council’s Growing in the Park project, run in conjunction with Dudley Mind, has been nominated in the Public & Private Partnership category at the LGC Awards.

It has been running for nearly five years in the walled garden at Stevens Park in Wollescote. A group of around 25 regular attendees, many of whom are long time unemployed, meet and work on the garden for two days a week in all weathers all year round. Matt Williams, director of public realm, said:

"I am absolutely delighted that the Growing in the Park project has been shortlisted for this prestigious award. Over the last five years around 80 people have accessed the group and benefitted from it.

"Volunteering has provided them with the confidence, experience, skills and self-belief needed to help them progress on to the next chapter in their lives, and many have gone on to gain employment."

The awards take place on March 18 next year at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, London.