THE Tavistock Community Sensory Garden — currently under construction — has received a cash boost to help make the garden more accessible for the visually impaired.

The garden committee was delighted to receive a grant of £4,800 from the Big Lottery’s Awards for All fund to install a braille map and interpretation board at the sensory garden, which is being created in Tavistock Meadows.

The sensory garden is a project being run in a major partnership between Tavistock Rotary Club, Tavistock Lions’ Club, Roots to Transition, Tavistock Dementia Action Alliance and Tavistock Town Council to build a garden alongside the Rose Walk area in the meadows, which will engage all five senses with a water fountain, gazebo, beds of different smelling flowers, herbs and vegetables as well as a petanque court, as a place for all members of the community to enjoy but with a special appeal for people with dementia and their carers.

The braille map and interpretation board will provide a new information facility to ensure people are able to fully appreciate and participate in the new garden.

A spokesperson for the garden committee said: ‘We are delighted that we have received this funding from the Lottery. As with all the aspects of the design of the sensory garden, much research has gone into the planning of the different features. The whole project has been a complex group effort, with different people offering the lead in areas where they feel that they have the relevant skills. It was Richard Jones who contacted the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) and a specialist department of Plymouth University for advice. It is our intention to make the garden accessible for the blind and partially-sighted, with an information board and signage throughout the garden.’

David Incoll, who submitted the grant application to the Big Lottery, said: ‘We are providing a sensory garden in the centre of Tavistock — a first for the town and very much needed. Tavistock Rotary Club, of which I am a member, established the Tavistock Dementia Alliance and this in turn has identified the need for a sensory garden.

‘Some of the prospective users are blind or suffer from limited vision. Hence our interpretation provision needs to cater for their needs. We are planning the provision of a 1,200mm by 600mm map and interpretation board using braille signing in accordance with RNIB good practice so that visitors with no or little eyesight can fully appreciate the proposed garden and its varying contents, including the specific sensory plants, granite and water features. Such maps are recognised good practice.’

After taking further advice from the RNIB, the committee was directed to a manufacturer who will design the highly-specialised sign. The design of this can only be finalised when the landscaping is finished, the features of the garden are installed and planting is completed in the autumn of this year.

The committee said progress so far had been good and it was on schedule with the work it had undertaken.