A NEW £2.2 million horticultural centre in Greenock has been hailed as an important step in helping people with mental health issues.

Inverclyde MP Iain McKenzie has praised the ambitious project by the Inverclyde Association for Mental Health (IAMH) for a purpose-built centre in Mearns Street as part of a wider £26m regeneration of the Broomhill area by Inverclyde Council and River Clyde Homes.

Work on the new facility — which will include a horticultural section, training area and community centre — is set to begin in July built with the support of the Big Lottery Fund.

IAMH provides residential care for people moving from an institutional to a residential setting, with the aim of promoting confidence, individual living, personal development and employability skills to support people through recovery.

Their new Broomhill HQ will allow them to continue their existing services and also help get unemployed people back into work.

Mr McKenzie, pictured visiting IAMH at their current base in Caddlehill Street, said: “It was great to visit. I also commend the group for providing work experience to people affected by long term unemployment which is essential at this time of increasing costs of living and competition for employment.” Mr McKenzie has given the Broomhill project his full support and is pleased that the former Mearns Centre site will now be transformed.

He said: “It was very exciting to see their planned centre in Broomhill, which will see a vacant site transformed into a new horticultural and community facility.”