We are bidding to bag a 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.
We are fortunate enough to be one of the groups on the shortlist to receive funding. With the involvement and support of the local community, we plan to create New Street Nature Park in a derelict space in South Leamington. The New Street location was formerly a burial ground but has been left untended for many years.
With the minimum £8,000 grant, local people will be invited to workshops to enhance the wildlife on site – making bird & bee boxes, hedgehog habitats & bug hotels. It will also fund natural play features and regular ‘forest gardening’ sessions. However, additional votes from the public could result in extra funds to pay for secure storage for necessary gardening equipment. If we get the maximum number of votes, we could also install some beautiful, carved wooden benches.
We hope to turn this neglected space into a vibrant, well loved, attraction for local people. Your votes are needed to ensure that we can really develop the site to its full potential.
You can come along to the first in a series of workshops in New Street to discuss the proposals for the Nature Park on Sun 30th October & Sat 12th November.
Shoppers are being invited to head along to Tesco stores to vote for who they think should take away the top grant. Voting is open in Leamington, Warwick, Lillington & Southam Tesco stores from 31st October – 13th November (originally planned to take place 26 September to 9 October). 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.
Find out more by ‘liking’ and sharing the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NewStreetNaturePark
NB – The project has evolved since the first ideas were consulted on in 2016. Read our latest blog post to find out more.
