Hostel residents get revamp

Residents at a Telford hostel are celebrating after being awarded £7,000 in funding to revamp their garden after designing the plans.

The 16 to 25-year-olds, at Wesley House in Oakengates wanted to transform their overgrown back garden from a wilderness into a haven of tranquillity.

They applied to the Network Funding, based at Meeting Point house in Telford town centre, for £4,300 but the funding bosses were so impressed with their application that they handed them the full award of £7,000.

Diana Fulkes, support co-ordinator at Wesley House which is run as part of the STAY project by Telford Christian Council, said the funding was a credit to the youngsters hard work and planning after designing the garden themselves.

They now hope businesses or trades people will come forward to offer their skills.

Mrs Fulkes said: "We started working with the residents in January because they were bored and had nothing to do and nowhere to sit in the summer.

"It started with a couple of the lads doing the grass and then I mentioned the garden and getting funding and they were so interested.

"All the residents together did the drawings and wrote exactly what they wanted. The funding group obviously could see they had done all of the work themselves and gave all of the £7,000 which was wonderful."

Mrs Fulkes said the homeless hostel caters for people living on the streets and other "sofa surfers" who have not got anywhere they can call home.

The group have already had generous offers of help from businesses across the borough including Grange Fencing, Taffs and Norbridge Nursery.

The youngsters hope to start work on the garden in the next week.

"What we really need is for people to lend us their expertise.

"It is the residents' project so they've got to do the work but they need adult support and expertise to do jobs like putting the fencing up."

Sixteen-year-old Laura Ann, a member of the residents' committee, said: "Our garden is a real mess at the moment.

"It's just grass and weeds and needs levelling out."

Anyone who can help is asked to contact Mrs Fulkes on 07763180350.