THE popular Barracks Lane Community Garden is looking forward to welcoming even more visitors this summer, thanks to a windfall of nearly £10,000.

The green space in East Oxford has been awarded a grant of £9,650 by the National Lottery Awards for All programme to make the garden more accessible.

New solar lighting will be added, and a new patch of land cultivated at the bottom of the garden.

Garden co-ordinator Jacqui Mansfield said: “We had a big consultation last autumn and surveyed everyone who came in.

“One of the big things that came out was a need for better lighting.

“Local groups, particularly the youth groups, have been using it in the evening and using head torches. This will make it much more usable.”

Last year, 6,000 people came to visit the garden and it hosts a cluster of community groups, including Woodcraft Pioneers, meditation sessions and Scope, which caters for children with additional needs.

Land at the end of the garden was recently leased to the management team by Oxford City Council. Ms Mansfield said: “About half of people said they wanted it to be a ‘quiet area’ and others said they wanted ‘things in it’.

“We will put a path into the area and put seating around the tree.”

Work is expected to be completed in August, after which a series of events will celebrate the new improvements.

A harvest festival is planned for Sunday, October 15, featuring crop swaps, a produce sale and honey harvesting, as well as the chance for people to grind their own grain and make bread in the wood-fired oven.

It will be followed by a Night Lights event on Saturday, November 7, to show off the new solar lamps alongside a bonfire.

Ms Mansfield said: “It will be a magical evening.”

Barracks Lane Community Garden was one of 89 projects in the South East to receive a grant in the latest round of the Awards for All scheme, which gives grants of between £300 to £10,000 to local groups to improve the quality of life in their area.

The garden was officially announced as a winner earlier this year but received the money on Tuesday.

Big Lottery Fund England deputy director Lyn Cole said: “These excellent projects will help improve communities in the South East through National Lottery funding.”

Throughout this month) a series of events, including regular gardening and bike repair drop-ins, a clothes swap, and an Indian chanting event to raise money for victims of the earthquake in Nepal, will be held at the garden.

* For more information visit the website barrackslanegarden.org.uk