Redgate School scoops top prize of £12,000 with Tesco Bags of Help scheme

Redgate Community Primary School have scooped the top prize of £12,000 for their community garden project, thanks to all the tokens in Tesco to vote for them.

Redgate garden project was shortlisted in Tesco's 'Bags of help' initiative out of three.

Tesco supermarket teamed up with Groundwork to launch its Bags of Help initiative, which sees grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 being awarded to environmental and greenspace projects. The 5p carrier bag charge is used to fund grants to improve local parks, hold community events, support sports groups and more. The grants are managed by the community charity Groundwork UK.

Millions of shoppers voted in stores up and down the country for the last round of funding – with over £11.5 million being awarded to winning projects. The bids are in for round two and have now been shortlisted to a final three in our area for which Tesco customers will get the chance to vote in stores for which of the three finalists – and their respective environmental improvement projects – they’d like to see win the prize money.

The finalists received grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000. Customers voted for their favorite project for two weeks from 31st October by way of tokens in the store.

Redgate Community Primary School said: "Celebration time - as Redgate Primary is awarded £12,000 in the Bags of Help with Formby Tesco. Many thanks to all who voted, we are delighted. Thank you to Tesco Formby - now we can plan our community garden!"

The three finalists were: 1 - Redgate community primary school in Formby To provide improvements to school outdoor areas and the creation of a community garden and a sensory garden at the front of the school. The children are all very excited about gardening and this maintains interest of all the children involved, keeping up good relationships of community groups.

2 - West Lancs Borough Council for Burscough Brickpits - Nature area/Conservation area/Wildlife area improvement. This is to develop its wildlife potential. They want to get volunteers involved and want to help the bio-divercity and improve access through scrub clearance and the outlook would be to provide a wildlife area that could be used by the local community.

3 - River Tawd - Skelmersdale To shore up the river banks and restore erosion to help restore natural habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms by willow spilling which is a green solution for bank revetment enabling the bank and vegetation to naturally re-generate and stabilise to prevent further erosion.

The next round of Bags of Help is now open. Please apply for funding now for your community group and you could be one of the winners collecting thousands of pounds. This is an exciting community grant scheme that is funded by the government's 5p bag charge. You can nominate community projects that are close to you. Does a green space in your local area need some attention? This is YOUR money so have your say on where it goes.

Applications are now open at www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp