Bosses at a garden centre ravaged by fire say the blaze may actually have been a help to them in the long term.

Plants and buildings at ACW in Canal Road, Frizinghall were burned to cinders in a fire last month.

But with the help of loyal customers and hardworking staff, co-owner Andrew Walmsley said business was back on track.

And instead of killing off the 30-year-old business, Mr Walmsley said the fire could have done it a favour.

He said: "We were restricted by the old buildings to some extent. But that will not be the case now.

"We hope to start work on the new building by late September or early October.

"We will be much more able to lay things out how we want to.

"We have also got matters in progress for our Christmas display building, which will be up and running in time for the season.

"All the staff and customers have been brilliant since the fire.

"We had a bumper Bank Holiday with 25 per cent discounts and everyone is responding to the effort being put in."

The lawnmower repair workshop, which had been based in Canal Road, has been moved to the family's Woodbank garden centre in Harden.

The fire started at the centre while repair work was being done on a pane of glass in one of the roofs using a blow lamp and bitumen.

Fish, plants and buildings were all destroyed by the flames but despite a full house of customers, no-one was injured.

The family managed to work around the devastation and had a skeleton business up and running by July 20, only two days after the blaze.

They have put on a string of sales and issued pleas to customers to bear with them while stock was replaced and buildings put up.