COMMUNITY regeneration firm Newground has taken centre stage at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the first time.

The company, part of the Together Housing group which oversees Housing Pendle and the Together Housing Group, has teamed up with artist John Everiss for the project.

The partnership came when Newground director Nick Riley brought Mr Everiss’s last show exhibit, a pair of rutting stags, to Blackburn.

The designers say the metal sculpture of a crouched figure reflects a young person with all the potential wrong choices laid out before them. A water channel leads them through life’s hurdles with stone columns before blending with the planting.

Mr Riley said: “It shows our work with young people, education and our environmental work in one piece.”

Plans have been submitted to bring the sculpture to Blackburn, where it would be located at the Haslingden Road roundabout near Eurogarages HQ.