A CONSERVATION charity is getting to work with £12,000 awarded by a supermarket chain.

The charity Friends of Burgess Hill Green Circle Network was awarded the cash by Tesco under their groundwork and bags for life scheme to completely restore a badly-overgrown pond on Hammonds Ridge Meadows.

The major work by contractors will start in a few weeks.

Work to clear small trees from the little island should begin next weekend and volunteers will reach it by means of a two-man dinghy in relays, which promises to be a lot of fun as well as being useful work.

Though the water level has dropped, this has been such an exceptionally wet year that the pond, normally dry by now, is still half-full.

The volunteers will also clear the brambles and dense undergrowth surrounding the pond.

When completed, overhanging branches will have been removed, the pond will have been dredged, there will be a dipping platform, a fence and two benches to create a thriving wildlife pond instead of an overgrown eyesore.