CHILDREN helped grow a rain garden to solve a flooding problem.
Two bare grass verges have been transformed with plants to soak up surface water. The area of Maltravers Road, opposite the Arun Civic Centre, Littlehampton, used to see large puddles spread over the street to the Beach Road roundabout during downpours of heavy rain.
But the garden will help slow the flow of water thanks to ferns, Ivy, Dogweed, Snowball trees and other plants with layers of gravel underneath.
It cost West Sussex County Council, the Littlehampton Civic Society and The Arc Project, £15,700 to complete the garden.
Pupils at Littlehampton Academy joined other volunteers to help with planting.
Littlehampton Civic Society secretary Angela Tester said she hoped the area would also attract wildlife, adding: "Rain gardens can collect the rain from the roofs and the many down pipes that feed into the pavements.
"So many people concrete over their front gardens these days, it causes problems with surface water.
"Littlehampton also has a Victorian drainage system underground which makes life difficult."
Anyone interested in planting a similar garden can apply to West Sussex County Council's Operation Watershed Fund.
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