THE Tesco Bags of Help scheme, which donates the 5p’s charged for carrier bags to local groups for outdoor projects, has just opened it’s second round of applications.

Organisations in and around Crediton are being encouraged to apply for the grants which total £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000.

The Bags of Help scheme at Tesco stores, like other large retailers, is the result of the law change to charge 5p for each carrier bag requested by customers.

Tesco has taken the decision to pass those 5p’s on to local communities around the country to improve outdoor spaces around the land.

The grants are available for a whole host of projects including: Parks, formal and informal play areas, nature reserves, community woodlands, allotments, school grounds and much, much more.

As well as the plethora of projects that the grants cover, there are many organisations that can apply for the money, voluntary or community groups, schools and local authorities, to name but a few. The only stipulation for organisations is that they are constituted and have a governing document.

At the Crediton Tesco store at Wellparks there will be an information stand until Bank Holiday Monday, May 2, which will have full details about the scheme and you can sign up to a workshop event on May 10 with the schemes administrators, Groundworks.

The store’s community champion, Andrew Drayton, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for local groups to apply for quite significant amounts of money to help improve the green spaces around the district.

“We are contacting as many of the local schools and relevant organisations as possible but encourage anyone that thinks they know of an area that would benefit from the grants to apply for the funding."

Mr Drayton added that one of the key elements of the scheme is that you do not even have to be part of an organisation to get involved.

There is a nomination process whereby local residents can nominate a green space or outdoor area to Groundworks who will follow it up by contacting the group regarding an application.

Applications for this round of grant funding are open from now until noon on Friday, June 3 and the stores manager, Stuart Bennett is keen to see as many applications from Crediton as possible, stating: "I would love to see an organisation from Crediton capture one of these fantastic grant amounts and we will give all of the support that we can to any group to help them with their application.

“I will also say that, should a Crediton group win an award, the store will offer support to them to help that project come to fruition.

“We have a fantastic reputation in the town for the community work that we have done, and continue to do, and to be able to help a group that has won an award would be brilliant!"

For more information on the Bags of Help scheme visit the large Tesco store before May 2. Information, including the nomination and application forms can be found at: www.groundwork.org.uk/sites/tescocommunityscheme or for this, or any other community-based enquiry, please contact Andrew Drayton on 07718 533069 or email: [email protected] .

Alan Quick