CLEVEDON residents looking to enjoy more of the outdoors are being encouraged to get involved with a community orchard project.

Members of Transition Clevedon, a group aimed at promoting sustainability, are hoping to re-invigorate the Millennium Orchard off Brookfield Walk, which was created 11 years ago but has become over grown and is no longer used by the public.

Clevedon Town Council has granted the group a five-year lease for the orchard and, now, plans are underway to spruce it up and encourage more people to use it.

Firstly, the undergrowth and brambles currently covering the site need to be removed and the apple trees cut back and pruned.

Once this is done the group intends to use the site to teach skills such as pruning and identifying plants as well as how to make cider and apple juice. It is also hoped the site will also be used as a general community space.

Transition Clevedon member Ruth Gofton said: “We do need to work to bring it under control over the next couple of years so we are looking for groups or individuals to get in touch to help.

“We want people to be able to go there and have picnics and enjoy it.

“It is all to do with making the community more sustainable and also to build a better community.”

Members of the public are being encouraged to go to the orchard on Saturday or Sunday between 2-4pm to take along a picnic and view the eye-catching apple blossom that has now come out.

Anyone wishing to get involved in the project can also go along or email transitionclevedon@gmail.com or visit the website www.transitionclevedon.org.uk

The orchard can be found off Brookfield Walk and across two small fields.