YOUNGSTERS with special needs are set to benefit from a sensory garden that will be built on waste ground next to their school.

Territorial Army Pioneers will create the garden, for the youngsters aged 11 to 19, next to Catcote School, Hartlepool.

It will be designed to stimulate the youngsters' touch, hearing, sight and sense of smell, using such things as a wall of coloured bottles, a summer house, a water feature, trees and scented plants.

Wendy Simms, a teacher at the school, said: "The garden will make such a difference to our children. Some have profound and multiple learning difficulties and use wheelchairs.

"We take them out on trips, but the garden is a way of bringing the outdoors to them in a form they will enjoy.

"We are trying to enhance their education by creating an outdoor teaching environment."

The 70 students, from 104 Pioneer Squadron, at Coulby Newham, prepared the ground and laid the paths at the weekend. They will complete the garden next weekend.

It will be formally opened on the Sunday by BBC Radio Cleveland presenter Stewart McFarlane.