People in St George have helped to repair 50 damaged benches in the local park.

Residents have done the work as part of a project to spruce up St George's Park led by Crofts End Church pastor Andrew Yelland.

He hopes to further improve the park, which has recently seen a major overhaul of its play area.

The scheme, called BenchAid, encouraged members of the community to work together to improve the appearance of the park.

Mr Yelland said: "If people make a little bit of effort then a huge difference can be made. We want to restore it so that people want to come and sit there for a few hours and just watch the world go by."

Already one of the benches has been repaired and repainted, and work is under way restoring a vandalised pavilion.

Children are sprucing up the back walls of a fire-damaged pavilion by creating two large graffiti murals.

Mr Yelland said: "The pavilion is a wonderful piece of architecture that has gone to rack and ruin, and will restore it completely.

"The back walls of the pavilion are canvases for street art by kids at the local skate park. It was being graffitied anyway so we thought we wanted to have something that incorporated the kids so they felt they had ownership.

"The kids were guided by two professional street artists and were able to express their interpretation of forgiveness in the stories of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son and unity through the medium of street art."

The scheme was run in partnership with Friends of St George Park and the local Community Partnership Scheme.