BURY Parish Church's garden of remembrance is undergoing a facelift.

And Rector of Bury, Dr John Findon, is inviting local people to attend a meeting to be briefed about the work.

The garden of remembrance, located at the rear of the church, is used for the burial of cremation ashes.

However, an assortment of needles, condoms and other unsavoury items have recently been discovered there.

"The garden is also overgrown and we are now involved in work to tidy it up," said the Rector.

A number of shrubs have already been removed and re-seeding and other general improvement work is scheduled to take place later this year.

But there are no plans to dig up the garden. The facelift will be confined to superficial surface work.

The garden of remembrance is maintained by Bury Council.

People whose family ashes are buried in the garden are now invited to attend the meeting to be held at the church house on Monday, September 11 beginning at 7.30pm.

Rev Findon continued: "Some people may have passed the garden, seen the work and wondered what is going on.

"The meeting will allow us to tell everyone what is happening to the garden."