Mill Green residents call out for votes to bag a share of a £12.5m carrier bag charge fund
Residents from WCS Care’s Mill Green home in Rugby are 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 from next month shoppers are being invited to head along to Tesco stores to vote for who they think should take away the top grant.
WCS Care’s Mill Green home is one of the groups on the shortlist.
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.
Christine Asbury, WCS Care’s Chief Executive, said: 'Residents are delighted with the opportunity to create an inspirational sensory garden at Mill Green and a space that everyone can enjoy.
'Thanks to help from Tesco and with votes from the local community, we will be 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.'
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.'