HORTICULTURAL charity workers were blooming fuming after thieves lifted their plants.

Burnley and Pendle Green Space group workers had left herb planters and a hanging basket outside their Bank House, Colne, headquarters, on Friday night, ready for Saturday's annual plant sale.

The following morning the team arrived to find they had gone - robbing the volunteers of £20 worth of sales.

"It was very disappointing," said support worker Kate Hogg. But despite the setback, the plant sale blossomed with lots of buyers taking to the streets on Colne Gala day.

The Green Space project for people with mental health problems hopes to have made around £150 from the event.

Meanwhile Green Space volunteers in Burnley were hard at work at Towneley Park where, with the help of a £51,000 National Lottery award, they are creating a community garden and permaculture project named Offshoots.

The group is now building its own headquarters on the site using a special self-build method.

Saturday saw a communal work day, with volunteers placing a turf roof on the building.

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