Mill Green residents have bagged a share of a £12.5million carrier bag charge fund

Residents from WCS Care’s Mill Green care home in Rugby are delighted to announce they’ve bagged £10,000 from a Tesco funding scheme.

Tesco teamed up with Groundwork to launch the second round of its Bags of Help funding initiative, which sees grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the 5p bag levy – being awarded to local outdoor community projects.

Millions of shoppers voted in stores up and down the country. And it can now be revealed that people living at WCS Care’s Mill Green home have been awarded £10,000. Work will now begin on bringing the project to life.

Situated on Newbold Road in Newbold-on-Avon, the home provides long and short term care for people with physical disabilities or long-term conditions.

Mill Green’s garden is a welcoming space for residents, staff, and visitors but it needs updating to ensure it can cater for people’s changing needs, and will include a new sensory area, improved wheelchair access, and water features.

53-year-old Mick Clarke, who lives at Mill Green, is delighted with the grant from Tesco’s Bags of Help initiative, and said: 'We’re over the moon that we’ve been awarded £10,000 to create a fantastic sensory garden in our home.

'We can’t wait to be involved with the development of the garden and being able to enjoy the fruits of our labour when it’s all finished.'

Lynn Randall, home manager at Mill Green, added: 'It’s a fantastic opportunity to create a space that the residents and local community can really make the most of, whatever the weather.

'Thanks to help from Tesco and with votes from shoppers in Rugby, we’re able to build an accessible, relaxing environment that will improve daily life and provide lots of fun and activity for people living at Mill Green.'

Lindsey Crompton, Head of Community at Tesco, said: 'Bags of Help has been a fantastic success. We’ve been overwhelmed by the response of our customers and it’s been great to give people a say on how the money will be spent in their community. We can’t wait to see the projects come to life.'

Voting ran in stores from 31 October to 13 November – with customers choosing which local project they would like to get the top award using a token given to them at the check-out in store.

Tesco estimates that around six million votes were cast in stores up and down the UK. Since launching in 2015, Bags of Help has awarded more than £24m across 2,421 local projects.

And from 1 December, customers will be able to vote for local groups all year round, every time they shop and grants will be awarded monthly – meaning that thousands more projects will benefit from the scheme.

Funding will now be awarded to groups who are seeking to use and develop outdoor spaces in ways that will benefit their local community, and money will be available in smaller amounts, making it more accessible.

Customers will get the chance to vote for three different groups each month. At the end of each month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions will be awarded funding.

Groundwork’s national chief executive, Graham Duxbury, said: 'It’s just the beginning for Bags of Help and we’re really excited about the future.  The scheme will be permanently open for applications, and as grants can now be used for not just the development of, but also for the use of local outdoor spaces, we expect even more groups will now have the chance to benefit.

'It’s projects like these that really help to capture the public’s imagination by illustrating what can be achieved when communities are given the support and the encouragement they need to create better places where they live.'

Anyone can nominate a local project and local organisations can apply. To find out more visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp