Learn how to grow your own.

A new project is underway to teach local people how to grow their own and transform derelict land in Knowsley.

Knowsley Adult Learning Partnership (ALP) has been given £150,000 from the Government to teach adults how to grow vegetables, plants and flowers.

The Growing Places students will work on disused land across the borough in a free course that will last around six or seven months.

It is part of the Government’s Learning Revolution, to encourage adults to learn for pleasure rather than just for exams and in a relaxed setting.

“The students will learn how to grow things they can eat, exhibit or sell,” said Cllr Graham Wright, Knowsley’s cabinet member for Children and Family Services.

“Some of the students might simply be interested in turning a local eyesore into something better.

“All the sites will be completely accessible for people with disabilities and there will be facilities on site and a mobile classroom.”

The sites include The Old Schoolhouse, Huyton, Halsnead Primary School, Prescot, Holland Road, Halewood and St Martin’s Church, Kirkby.

The project was created by Knowsley ALP which brings together a variety of interested bodies working together to develop the skills of local people.

Growing Places will be run by Knowsley Parents and Adults Carers (KPAC) and Local Solutions.

“There is enormous local interest in horticulture,” said Knowsley’s Cabinet Member for Leisure, Community and Culture, Cllr Eddie Connor.

“There are currently three hundred people waiting for an allotment and this course might be of interest to them as well as others.”

Knowsley Adult Learning Partnership will be hosting an award ceremony at the end of the project as well as entering the Britain in Bloom awards.

If you would like to know more about Growing Places, call KPAC on 481 0047, or log on to www.growingplacesknowsley.org.uk