THREE projects are to benefit from a Tesco funding scheme which will see £30,000 ploughed back into the community.

The supermarket giant has teamed up with Groundwork on its ‘Bags of Help’ initiative, which will see grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the 5p bag levy – being awarded to environmental and green space projects.

Decided by public vote, the money is a share of Tesco’s £12.5m carrier bag charge fund which sees three groups in each of the supermarket’s 416 regions shortlisted to receive the cash awards. In the Alton region, the contenders in this, the second round of the initiative, were Alton Town Council, the Treloar School and College, and the 8th Alton Scout Group.

The scheme was launched at the end of October and customers had until November 13 to choose which project they would like to support using a token given to them at the checkout at Tesco Express stores on Anstey Lane, Alton, and at the Oak Green shopping parade in Four Marks.

Following the vote, this week it was revealed that Alton Town Council has bagged the top award, with £12,000 going to support the installation of a trim trail at Anstey Park.

Treloar’s came a close second, netting £10,000 to help provide outdoor musical instruments for disabled students in Holybourne, while the 8th Alton Scout Group is to receive £8,000 to help improve their cabin building in Anstey Park.

Graham Hill, chairman of the town council’s open spaces committee, was delighted with the result.

“It really is excellent news to hear that Tesco have awarded Alton Town Council £12,000 to implement a trim trail in Anstey Park,” he said.

“The idea for the project was widely supported in a recent public consultation and will now be fully funded thanks to this scheme.

“Our open spaces are a real asset to the town and it is good to see that they can be so extensively used by many members of the public for a wide range of activities.”

He added: “On behalf of the people in Alton, and in my capacity as chairman of the open spaces committee on Alton Town Council, I would like to thank Tesco for their generosity.”

The trim trail, to be located near the 3G artificial pitch at Anstey Park, should be installed ready for use next spring.

In expressing thanks to all those who voted and to Tesco for the award, Jocelyn Watkins, music teacher at Treloar’s, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have won £10,000 in funding through the Tesco ‘Bags of Help’ and would like to say thank you to Tesco and every single person who voted for the amazing support. This money really will make such a difference to the young people at Treloar’s.

“Our students are all physically disabled and we have decided to use the funding to provide a fully accessible outside play area with a musical focus. Using a local company we are going to start by buying four giant instruments for our outdoor musical and sensory area – these instruments will all be specially designed to be accessible and easy for our students to use – ensuring that they can all enjoy the physical, emotional and therapeutic benefits of playing/exploring as well as making wonderful music during their lesson and leisure time.

“When it is complete we will be able to open up this area for local mainstream schools to visit and use and provide opportunities to work on our community links.

“We are delighted and exceptionally grateful that Tesco and the local community have got behind this project and helped to secure this funding.”

On behalf of the 8th Alton Scouts, group Scout leader Sue Howe echoed these sentiments, explaining that the Scouts would use the £8,000 to provide outside canopies to enable the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts to use the outdoor area all year round, to buy outside benches and a slack line, and to make safety improvements to the car park.