A COMMUNITY garden has been given a new lease of life after it was flooded with sewage last year.

The Leatherhead Community Garden Project was forced to close its Woodbridge Road site last September after overflowing sewers were deemed to present a hazard to visitors.

GREEN FINGERS: Simon Woodhams, centre, with community gardeners at West Hill

But now volunteers have teamed up with West Hill School to create a shared garden and training facility, which was opened in the school's grounds last Saturday by a new working party.

Project manager Simon Woodham said: "It was great to see such a good turnout for our first event, thank you to everyone who made the effort.

"I have a lot of passion for the place and people have put a lot of effort into the community garden to develop it so it will be a fantastic place when it gets going."

CLOSURE: The Advertiser's coverage of the sewage leak at the North Leatherhead Community Garden

The new garden is larger than the previous site and, thanks to the school's status as a specialist science college, funding was found for a new polytunnel, covered training area and sheds for the garden.

And Mr Woodham thinks north Leatherhead has been crying out for this kind of facility.

He said: "There have been a lot of people from the community who want to have access to knowledge and the ability to learn skills in growing different vegetables and plants for their own houses."

Saturday's working party cleared an overgrown area to create a community entrance to the garden, but now the project is seeking more volunteers to help develop the site.

Mr Woodham said: "Even people who don't know anything at all we will help through, so literally no skills are required."

For the school, which caters for students with learning difficulties, the garden is an opportunity to engage with the community.

Andy MacFarlane, director of science specialism, said: "This is a really exciting project for us as it will not only provide an outstanding outdoor classroom for our pupils and a replacement community garden for north Leatherhead, but will also enable joint working between the school and the community."

He added: "Part of our job is to raise standards and also raise awareness of science in the wider community.

"Our job is to get as many people involved as we possibly can so it seemed like the perfect project for us."