THREE local groups have shared £24,000 – thanks to the 5p plastic bag charge at a local supermarket.

Improvement projects at Yorkley Cricket Club, the Orchard Trust at Lydbrook and Bream Church of England Primary School have benefitted from the Tesco Bags of Help scheme.

The cricket club received £10,000, the Orchard Trust had £8,000 and £6,000 went to the school.

Representatives of the groups attended a celebration evening at the Tesco store in Lydney.

The cricket club is hoping to be able to return to its ground later this year following widespread damage by boar.

The grant from Tesco has enabled the ground to be fenced and the outfield now has to be repaired, said vice-chairman Charles James.

The £120,000 project to make a wheelchair-friendly path around the smallholding and learning centre at the Orchard Trust and to create an outdoor classroom has been given a boost by the Bags of Help donation.

Project manager Phil Hucks said: “This money will start the budget to re-lay the path to make it wheelchair-friendly.

“It will be two metres wide so all our residents, visitors and everyone from the community is going to be able to come in and enjoy the facilities.

“To get the first tranche of funding in is really important because that means somebody believes in us.

“We’ve raised more money on the back of the donation Tesco has given us – they will be the people who seeded the project and got it started.”

A gardening project at Bream School which also involves the local community has also benefitted.

Assistant head Diane Simpson said: “Part of school has been given over to raised beds so children can see the whole process from planting seeds to harvesting – and they actually made the beds too.

There will be eight raised beds and a larger potato patch, as well as nature area, eco greenhouse, a pond and meadow area, and benches and chairs.

Community champion at Tesco, Lydney, Michelle Burke said: “We invited the three organisations that received grants from the Bags of Help scheme in store as we wanted to recognise their success but also to find out what the grants meant to them.

“It was great to meet with people and find out what they had been able to do with the money.”