What lies beneath: helping your local beck
We are are bidding, with support from our community partnerships, to bag a cash boost from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative to support on-going riverfly monitoring in the Barrow and Ulverston area.
Tesco teamed up with Groundwork to launch its community funding scheme, which sees grants of £4,000, £2,000 and £1,000 – raised from carrier bag sales in Tesco stores – being awarded to local community projects. Three groups in every Tesco region have been shortlisted to receive the cash award and shoppers are being invited to head along to Tesco stores to vote for who they think should take away the top grant. We think this is a great opportunity and need your help in securing this funding to make a difference to our local area.
This project will help local communities to connect with their area, through a ‘what’s in your river day’, and training to monitor the health of a local river or beck. The riverfly initiative is a national programme which has been running for a number of years, including successfully in South Cumbria for over 8 years. Riverfly is a simple, repeatable way to assess water quality and detect any deterioration, which can then be acted upon/ Local communities area a vital part of this, and SCRT already work closely with a number of community members to monitor the catchments of South Cumbria, however, to date there has been limited uptake in the Barrow and Ulverston area. Therefore, SCRT would like to support the community here to establish their own monitoring in the area and engage new audiences with the underwater environments of their local becks. The project will also look to engage with schools and local children to run a ‘what’s in your river day’ including a close up look at riverflies and ‘river-based’ art.
Voting is open in the following Tesco stores throughout September and October, where you can cast a vote via a token. Tesco’s Bags of Help project has already delivered over £33 million to more than 6,400 projects up and down the UK. Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups every time they shop, and this month it could be us.
Local Tesco stores taking part in the voting are:
- Barrow Extra (LA14 2NE)
- Barrow Metro (LA13 0DZ)
- Ulverston Exp (LA12 7AZ)
- Rawlinston St Barrow Exp (LA14 1BS)
- Barrow Walney Island Exp (LA14 3DD)
To check the local of any of the above stores, please go tot he tesco website here: http://www.tesco.com/store-locator/uk/
To vote, you will need to make a purchase within store of any value. You will receive one token per transaction and it’s not necessary to purchase a carrier bag in order to receive a token.