LOCAL youngsters have been given the chance to take part in a unique environmental poetry project set up by St Helens Council.

St Cuthbert's RC Community High School have adopted the Poet Tree project which will give pupils the chance to write poetry on a circle of tree logs set up in an area of open space at Ashtons Green.

The logs will be stood vertically and each will be coloured in reflective paint and inscribed with poetry and carvings created by the children.

The area of green land on Ashton Green is already the subject of a tree-planting programme started back in 1995 which aims to plant more than one million trees as part of the Mersey Forest scheme. Now, teachers at nearby Parr High School have also expressed a wish to create an environmental project of their own on the land.

Councillor Keith Deakin, chair of Leisure, said: "This work was only the beginning of creating an infrastructure for the 'green desert' and the development of the site was identified in the Parr and Blackbrook Pathways Initiative. Involving the community is crucial to the success of the site."

The Poet Trees will also have a viewing platform over the structure, a log table for further inscriptions and a pathway connecting the site with a planting area for wildflowers.

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