Aylesbury school and village council bidding for Tesco votes

Haydon Abbey School and Aston Clinton Parish Council are competing for money in the Bags for Help scheme.

The scheme is being run across England and Wales and it sees community groups awarded grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000.

The money is all raised through the five pence carrier bag charge which the store introduced last year.

The first group after your vote is Haydon Abbey Combined School, which is seeking to refurbish the outdoor learning area for its reception class.

School headteacher Judith Ejdowski said: “We are seeking to refurbish our outdoor classroom to make it more exciting and engaging for the children.

“We want to improve the surface and create more learning opportunities.”

The second group after your votes is Aston Clinton Parish Council which is looking to replace play equipment in the children’s playground so it can be used by both disabled and able-bodied children.

A spokesman for the parish council said: “We have been trying to become more disabled–friendly for some time and have been talking to some local mums with children who are wheelchair users.

“They have told us what equipment would work for their children to play alongside able-bodied children.

“At the moment some of them are going all the way over to Thomley near Oxford, where you have to prebook and pay an £8 entrance fee.

“We can’t wait to install our own equipment here in Aston Clinton.”

Haydon Abbey and Aston Clinton Parish Council are competing alongside in Bicester Town Council in the regional vote.

The town council is seeking to refurbish its play area at Garth Park.

It is looking to have a new fence put in at the park and to generally make it a safer and more environmentally-friendly area.

Shoppers have the opportunity to vote for the project of their choice between February 27 and March 6.

The shops where customers can vote are the Tesco Express store in Jackson Road, Aylesbury, the Wendover Express store in Tring Road, Wendover, the Tesco Extra store in Broadfields Retail Park and the Tesco store in Tring Road, Aylesbury.

Customers are able to vote for their preferred projects with tokens which they will receive every time they complete a transaction.