A LIFELINE project which played a vital frontline role during the pandemic is hoping to create a memorial to the 200-plus people who have lost their lives in Inverclyde.

Award winning Belville Community Garden's manager Laura Reilly was among the first to realise the enormity of the crisis as it hit Inverclyde last spring.

Her team mobilised immediately and began making up and sending out self-isolation supply boxes.

As the relief effort took off, and with thousands of residents desperately needing, they had to move to bigger premises at Crawfurdsburn Community Centre.

They also organised a huge drive to get laptops and devices to school children for home learning.

The Tele chronicled their heroics throughout and the team eventually featured on BBC Two's Newsnight.

Now bosses at Belville are planning a pond among the natural habitat in their grounds, to give people a chance to reflect on the lives lost and the impact on the whole community.

Manager Laura said: "We have been asking the public what they would like to see here.

"I think it is important that we create a legacy in some way.

"The garden is a place the community can come to wander around and walk through.

"We want to create a pond where people can come and reflect.

"The pandemic has had such an enormous impact on everyone and we want to mark it in some way.

"It won't be manicured and landscaped, it will be in keeping with the natural vegetation."

During the pandemic hundreds of people volunteered with Belville and many more donated thousands of pounds of cash and food to help with the response.

They sent out thousands of self-isolation boxes to anyone who needed help while stuck at home.

The community garden provides a space for groups, families and individual residents to get outdoors.

The team helps vulnerable people at its Belville Street base and tries to tackle food security and sustainability.

Now they are hoping to create a lasting legacy following Covid-19.

Laura added: "We have had lovely feedback and I think this is something that the public would very much like to see."