As part of The Rock’s first birthday celebrations, the shopping and entertainment destination is teaming up with the local Groundwork Trust to revamp St John’s Gardens and is launching a competition for primary school to win a brand new garden worth £5,000.

The Rock celebrates it first birthday on Saturday 16th July and has teamed up with Groundwork as part of a wider partnership to deliver the Corporate Social Responsibility programme for the shopping and entertainment destination.

As well as the improvements to St John’s Gardens, The Rock and Groundwork are inviting primary schools in Bury and Bolton to submit designs for a new garden. The designs could include features such as raised beds, footpaths, sensory planting, vegetable-growing areas, willow sculptures and wildlife areas.  The entries will then be assessed and the winning design will be brought to life by the Groundwork team over the summer holidays.

The garden design should be no larger than 200m squared and entries should be submitted by Friday 1st July, with the winner being chosen in the week of 4th July.

On the partnership, David Laycock, Centre Director for The Rock, commented: “The Rock’s first year has been all about establishing the scheme as a staple shopping and entertainment destination in the region’s everyday life. A year on, and The Rock team is keen to work more in the local community and has developed programme of activity throughout the year. Groundwork does some fantastic work in the local area and we are looking forward to working with the team on some great community projects – starting with the competition to create a new garden for a local primary school.”

“As part of the partnership, Groundwork will also be revamping St John’s Gardens. The gardens are at the heart of the scheme and we are working closely with Groundwork to create an inviting and inspiring space that will offer some respite to shoppers at The Rock, and encourage visitors to extend their stay at the scheme.”

Tony Taylor, Executive Director, Groundwork, added: “Groundwork has a long standing and unique association with the private sector in Bury and Bolton particularly through the Groundwork Business Association, so it is particularly pleasing to continue this involvement with Bury’s major retail and shopping destination The Rock.”

For more information about The Rock Bury please visit the feature here