A SENSORY garden will soon replace litter-strewn overgrowth adjacent to a popular walkway in Portishead.

Volunteers from Portishead in Bloom have been given the go-ahead to start work on the eyesore site in Station Road, next to the Waitrose garage.

They will transform the patch of land, which has remained untouched for years, with brightly coloured flowers, highly scented plants and shrubs.

The move has signalled hope for Portishead town councillors who have been in talks with North Somerset Council for more than a year over improving the wider section of public space in front of the bed.

The area was once earmarked for a ship-shaped library but since the project failed to materialise the land has become a bone of contention. A random wall was built on the land, to help it retain its planning consent, which has since been subject to repeated graffiti.

The area is used to access Waitrose supermarket and Horatio House, which is home to Portishead Library, a charity shop and a dentist, from Station Road and the High Street.

Councillor David Pasley said: “This area of land is used by a large number of people and nothing would give us more pleasure than to see it improved. This could include flower tubs, public benches and maybe even a monument of some kind.”

Residents have been calling for a clean-up of the prominent area since 2010 when it was suggested Black Nore Lighthouse was put on the site as a tribute to Portishead’s maritime history. Other suggestions for use of the land over the past two years have included turning it in to a public garden and creating a car park.