Charities ask Tesco customers to help them protect Wirral’s Skylarks

Wirral’s Port Sunlight River Park is bidding to bag a massive cash boost from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative, to build fencing to ensure the successful breeding of Skylarks.

The river park is managed by Wirral-based charity Autism Together, which maintains the park on a day-to-day basis on behalf of the Land Trust, and provides an open space which welcomes all members of the community. The park is looked after by the charity’s service users and by local volunteer groups.

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 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.

Port Sunlight River Park is one of the groups on the shortlist.

Their aim is to protect ground nesting skylarks and lapwings by building a fence to ensure they breed successfully without being disturbed off their nests.

Autism Together’s park ranger, Anne Litherland, said, “To hear the skylarks sing as they fly in the sky above you is the sound of the River Park and it lifts your spirits. Knowing that they are in decline all over the country, it is really important for us to protect them here and ensure they can breed safely so everyone can appreciate them.

Voting is open in all Tesco stores in South Wirral from January to 28^thFebruaryand customers will cast their vote using a token given to them at the check-out in store each time they shop.

Tesco’s Bags of Help project has already delivered over £63 million to more than 20,000 projects across Britain. Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups every time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions will be awarded funding.

Alec Brown, Head of Community at Tesco, said:

“Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. There are some fantastic projects on the shortlists and we can’t wait to see these come to life in hundreds of communities.”

Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said:

“Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down Britain to improve the local spaces and places that matter to them. The diversity of projects that are being funded shows that local communities have a passion to create something great in their area. We are pleased to be able to be a part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive.”