THE amount raised for Wirral Food Bank from a virtual tour of Oxton's secret gardens is more than £3,000.

A group of volunteers set up a special Facebook page to feature videos and pictures of gardens and musical performances online after this year's official Secret Gardens of Oxton public event was due to take place on May 10, but had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus crisis.

Thousands of visitors to the site – some from as far afield as China and America – were asked to make a donation to Wirral Foodbank and local residents were also asked to contribute to a food box in the village.

Rachel Buxton, who organised the food box, said: "We've delivered 54kg of food to Wirral Foodbank and so generous were the donations, that we’ve decided to keep the initiative going for a few more weeks."

Kevin Donovan who organised the Facebook event, said: "Not only did visitors thoroughly enjoy the 'virtual' gardens experience, but they raised a phenomenal amount for such a worthy cause."

Richard Roberts, manager of Wirral Foodbank, said: "It is an incredible amount of money and I'd like to thank Oxton’s Virtual Gardens for choosing us as their nominated charity and to everyone for their generous support."

People can still see the garden videos and pictures by searching https://www.facebook.com/groups/oxtonvirtualgardens/