November 2016

North East Hampshire MP supports local greenspace project

North East Hampshire MP Ranil Jayawardena visited Hook on 4 November in support of the town’s local project Hook in Bloom – a recent recipient of Tesco’s Bags of Help grant. The green fingered MP got stuck into helping with planting a rose ready to bloom next year.

Sandra Tidy, community champion at the Tesco store in Hook, said: “With Tesco’s help we can really start making our vision for Hook in Bloom a reality, and turn our village centre into a beautiful place for everyone.”

“It’s great to see Tesco supporting local projects such as Hook in Bloom. I am very pleased with this support,” said Mr Jayawardena.

Hook In Bloom volunteer, Sue Hinton, added, “We knew the project would not be an easy, quick fix, there would be lots of hard work, but it is thanks to Tesco that the funding side of things has been made so much easier by giving us £8,000 and we have not had to go after lots of tiny amounts of money to achieve our ultimate goal.”

The money has since helped bring the project’s main focus to life – its planting scheme. Flower beds in selected locations – including Fairholme Parade, Grand Parade, the Elizabeth Hall, Hook Community Centre and outside the Raven Hotel – are being stripped and planted with colourful arrays of alliums Purple Sensation, Graceful Beauty and roses.

Wooden troughs have also been ordered and will start to appear soon. Three are to be installed outside the Tesco store, another two on the paved area outside Hook Tandoori, and three under selected Hook village signs.

Thanks to the £8,000 grant from Tesco, volunteers have decided to focus the bulk of the planting on the County Series of ground cover roses. These dense, bushy roses produce an abundance of flowers from June well into late October and early November.

Bags of Help is a funding scheme launched by Tesco, which provides grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the 5p bag levy – to environmental and greenspace projects.

In March eight million customers nationwide voted for their favourite projects, resulting in Hook in Bloom securing £8,000. The popular initiative is run by a group of volunteers and aims to make Hook an attractive place to live, work and visit.

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