The garden was created by employees of National Grid on a piece of arboretum land donated by Leicestershire County Council. It is due be opened by the chair of Leicestershire County Council and the Mayor of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council at an official event on Friday 8th June 2007.
The design of the garden had to follow a very specific brief from park ranger David Hardwick. He challenged the company to develop a garden in keeping with the natural surroundings of the country park, but for use specifically by people who are blind or partially-sighted and local charity VISTA.
Staff from National Grid's Hinckley offices spent over 400 hours in total finding special material, installing wooden planters, a pergola and benches, planting sensory flower beds and building a 100-metre long, two-metre wide pathway using only hand tools.
Joanne Morgan, performance manager for National Grid's Hinckley customer services team, said: "Our involvement started way back in February 2006; over 20 of our employees have worked really hard and spent many hours helping to develop this garden.
Vista's gardening group the 'Barwell Bloomers' already have a large planter dedicated to them on the site and we have been grateful for their help and advice in getting the area finished. We have made a commitment to help maintain and further develop the area, so we are all looking forward to seeing it grow and bloom over the summer months.
Notes to editors - archive
National Grid is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world and was named Responsible Business of the Year 2014 by Business in the Community. This accolade acknowledges all of our efforts in getting involve with the things that really matter to us and to society. We own and manage the grids that connect people to the energy they need, from whatever the source. In Britain and the north-eastern states of the US we run systems that deliver gas and electricity to millions of people, businesses and communities.
In Britain, we run the gas and electricity systems that our society is built on, delivering gas and electricity across the country. In the North Eastern US, we connect more than seven million gas and electric customers to vital energy sources, essential for our modern lifestyles.
National Grid in the UK:
- We own the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales, operating it across Great Britain
- We own and operate the high pressure gas transmission system in Britain
- Our gas distribution business delivers gas to 10.9 million homes and businesses
- We also own a number of related businesses including LNG importation, land remediation and metering
- National Grid manages the National Gas Emergency Service free phone line on behalf of the industry - 0800 111 999 (all calls are recorded and may be monitored).
- Our portfolio of other businesses is mainly concerned with infrastructure provision and related services where we can exploit our core skills and assets to create value. These businesses operate in areas such as Metering, Grain LNG Import, Interconnectors and Property. National Grid Carbon Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of National Grid. It undertakes Carbon Capture Storage related activities on behalf of National Grid.
Find out more about the energy challenge and how National Grid is helping find solutions to some of the challenges we face at www.nationalgridconnecting.com
National Grid undertakes no obligation to update any of the information contained in this release, which speaks only as at the date of this release, unless required by law or regulation.