Tesco Plastic Bags Help Beverley Community Groups Take A Share Of £11.7m

Good causes in Beverley have bagged a share of £11.7m thanks to the plastic bag levy.

Supermarket Tesco teamed up with Groundwork to launch its Bags of Help initiative which sees grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000, all raised from the 5p bag levy, being awarded to environmental and greenspace projects.

From 27th February to 6th March millions of shoppers, including those at Tesco’s store in Beverley, voted in stores up and down the country, with customers choosing which group they’d like to get the top award. Tesco estimated that about 8m votes were cast. In total, 1170 organisations across the UK will receive a share of the Bags of Help fund.

Now our three local winners have been announced and the Grovehill Heritage Trail and Wildlife Project will receive the top award of £12,000. The runner up was St Mary’s CE Primary School which will receive £10,000 and in third place Beverley in Bloom, which receives £8,000.

Howard Tomlinson, secretary of the winning group said:

“Our community-led environmental project aims to improve public access to Beverley’s Swinemoor and Figham Commons by creating a connecting ‘green corridor’ along the banks of the River Hull for the benefit of local people, visitors and wildlife. We are thrilled with the voting support from Tesco shoppers in winning this first Tesco ‘Bags of Help’ Award in our region.”

“Money from the award will go towards improving existing footpaths plus the creation of display boards along the route providing useful information about the environment and the area’s industrial history.”

“The First Place bonus will help to sponsor a school/college competition for an art installation in the vicinity of Weel Bridge to commemorate the former Beverley Shipyard – a site associated for centuries with the building, repair and launch of hundreds of vessels. Thank you so much for your support to encourage and assist our activities.”

Lucy Jordan, Headteacher at St Mary’s CE Primary School, who will be building an outdoor classroom with their £10,000 grant said:

“I am delighted that the school has been successful in bidding for this community grant and very grateful to everyone in the town who voted for St Mary’s Primary School to receive a larger amount of money.”

“£10,000 is a huge amount of money and this will be well spent creating a ‘countryside’ area within the school grounds which the children at school and groups within the local community will be able to use as a valuable learning resource and a place to enjoy the peace and quiet.”

“St Mary’s has excellent links with Tesco in Beverley and I am very grateful for the continued support we receive from them.”

Beverley in Bloom will receive £8,000 to help build their community garden and group co-ordinator Clive Waddington said:

“We will be creating the garden in the area between New Walkergate and the Tesco café. The plan includes a pedestrian barrier, hedging, new trees, shrubs and flowers, block paving, wheelchair access and memorial benches. We are sure that it will greatly enhance the area and we would like to thank everyone who voted for us.”

Natasha McCluskey, People Manager at Tesco’s Beverley store said;

“Bags of Help has been a fantastic success. We have been overwhelmed by the response of our customers and the feedback has been brilliant. We can’t wait to see the money being put to use bringing these projects to life.”

Nominations and applications for the next round of Bags of Help funding will open on 18th April. As well as applying direct, suggestions for projects can also be nominated by people living locally.