A wildlife garden at the front of Barrow's Holiday Inn Express is said to be 'thriving' after staff created it with members of Age UK Barrow & District in the summer.

Staff have noticed a few 'guests' checking into the new bug hotels and reported at the beginning of the month that the garden as a whole was flourishing.

The garden provides plenty of shelter with the small wooden structures providing plenty of nooks and crannies for insects.

There is also an owl box on the roof of the hotel to keep winged guests safe and sheltered from the Barrow weather.

Sales manager at the Holiday Inn Express Jenna Strickland said: "As we are a central location in Barrow town centre, we are actively involved in our local community and always looking at ways we can improve our sustainability and the role we play within our local environment.  

"We decided to introduce a bug hotel, garden, and owl box to offer wild bees and other pollinators a suitable shelter so they can perform their all-important work.

"We were alerted to our beautiful owl friend by a regular guest at our hotel. Barn owls are under constant threat, especially in towns due to loss of habitat and food supply, we gave our owl friend a little help in hand by providing them with a haven - owl boxes are known to encourage mating and owl population growth."

The hotel has previously won a Bronze award from Green Tourism which promotes greener ways for businesses and organisations to operate.