A Liverpool Jewish cemetery will have its important historic features restored by a £494,000 grant.

The money from the Heritage Lottery Fund will restore the Grade II listed archway at Dean Road Jewish Cemetery and repair broken and fallen gravestones.

Public access will be restored to the site, which has been closed to visitors for years. The cemetery had been the target of fly-tipping and vandalism and a campaign to restore it was formally launched three years ago.

The accessibility will be improved by a landscaping scheme and paths will be built around the cemetery. The grant will also pay for a seating area and a new building for visitors and volunteers.

A special ceremony to mark the grant was held with Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger, and attended by Cllr Louise Baldock, the project co-ordinator and Saul Marks, chairman of the Deane Road cemetery committee.

‘The project has so many ramifications. It’s been a long time coming too’

Mr Marks, who has led the project since March 2005, said: "It's just wonderful and it's a huge achievement. The project has so many ramifications, it's a heritage project, a Jewish project, an environmental project and an urban regeneration project. It's been a long time coming too; some members of the team have been working on it for eight years."

The cemetery in Kensington is the final resting place of some of Liverpool's best-known entrepreneurs. The last burial was in 1929.

Actress Miriam Margolyes, solicitor Rex Makin and MPs Louise Ellman and Jane Kennedy are among those who supported the bid to fund a restoration.