Bags of Help...Swaffham needs your helps.....

Swaffham Town Council calls out for votes to bag a share of a £12.5million carrier bag charge fund

Monday 31st October to Sunday 13th November 2016

Swaffham Town Council is bidding to bag a massive cash boost from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative.

The supermarket has teamed up with Groundwork on its Bags of Help initiative, which see grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the 5p bag levy – being awarded to environmental and greenspace projects.

Three groups in each of Tesco’s 416 regions have been shortlisted to receive the cash award.

And this month shoppers are being invited to head along to Tesco stores to vote for who they think should take away the top grant.

Swaffham Town Council is one of the groups on the shortlist.

Merryweather Play Area roundabout has been out of action for some time, and the other equipment and surrounding fence are all in need of a spruce up to make the playground a safe and attractive place for children to play.

The Mayor, Cllr Paul Darby, said ‘We are delighted Merryweather Play Area has been chosen to receive one of the grants from the Bags of Help initiative. We hope that people will get behind the bid and vote for our scheme so that we can secure the higher finding levels and go ahead with all of the new equipment, cleaning and painting.’

Voting is open in stores from 31st October to 13th November. Customers will cast their vote using a token given to them at the check-out in store each time they shop.

This is the second round of the initiative: the first round saw approximately eight million shoppers vote in stores up and down the country earlier this year.

Lindsey Crompton, Head of Community at Tesco, said: “The first round of the Bags of Help initiative was a fantastic success.

“In total 1,170 community groups were awarded £8,000, £10,000 or £12,000 - that’s a massive £11.7 million being invested into local projects. “We are already seeing some great results from groups transforming their own environmental and greenspace areas. “We are absolutely delighted to open the voting for round two. There are some fantastic projects on the shortlists and we can’t wait to see them come to life in hundreds of communities.”

Groundwork’s national Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said: “Bags of Help is giving our communities both the funding and the support to create better, healthier and greener places for everyone to enjoy. “We’ve been thrilled to see the diversity of projects that have applied for funding, ranging from outdoor classrooms, sports facilities, community gardens, play areas and everything in between. “They’re all fantastic projects that make a real difference in our neighbourhoods. “We’re looking forward to learning the results of the customer vote and then supporting each group to bring their project to life.”