VOTING is almost over for Tesco’s Bags of Help scheme - where three local projects are guaranteed to win thousands of pounds.

The scheme will see money dished out from the proceeds of the supermarket’s five pence bag charge. And three local projects are fighting it out for three grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000.

The competing projects are to improve the play park in Bittaford, along with new facilities at Ermington and Woodlands Park primary schools.

Tesco has pledged the money from the new carrier bag charge to local environmental or green space projects.

When it introduced the charge, the Government said it expected retailers to give the money to good causes.

Shoppers at Tesco Lee Mill and Ivybridge will be given a token at the checkout, which they can use to choose their preferred project, with the votes dictating who wins the different amounts.

Voting will now be open until Sunday, November 13, following a delay ‘due to a shortage in voting equipment.’

Ugborough Parish Council chairman Cllr George Beable said he was delighted theirs was one of the three chosen projects.

’Fit & Fun @ Bittaford’ proposes new play equipment and enhancement of the popular playground, although the finer details of what the council puts in will be dictated by how much money it is awarded.

Cllr Beable said: ’The playground has been in parish council ownership for about 30 years and it’s getting a bit tired, although we keep making repairs. It would be nice to replace a few bits, for children and their parents.’

Ermington school’s project ‘Music, Mud and Mindfulness’ will see a mud kitchen, an outdoor musical instruments area and a sensory garden built at the village primary.

If the school comes first or second, it could also install an outdoor puppet theatre, more complex outdoor instruments, and more trees and shrubs.

Woodlands Park Primary School’s ’Come Outside! Project’ will fund an outdoor classroom with a cob and stone oven and seating area, all-weather cobbled path, sensory garden, mud kitchen and wild flower bank for insect conservation.

If first or second, they would add a dry stone wall habitat, a water wall and a climbing area, and provide waterproofs for all Key Stage 1 children so they could head out even in wet weather.