The Friends of Hopwood shortlisted to win up to £12,000

The cabin area in Hopwood Park

The Friends of Hopwood Park’s Tranquillity Trail have been shortlisted to win up to £12,000 as part of the Tesco Bags of Help scheme.

The Friends, who applied for a grant, are guaranteed a minimum of £8,000 pounds to spend in the next 12 months on the proposed Tranquillity Trail. Bags of Help awards £8,000, £10,000 or £12,000 raised from the 5p carrier bag charge to three projects in 1,170 community groups across England and Wales.

They plan to work closely with Hopwood CP School to construct a community sensory garden for disabled children with herbs and plants that they can touch and smell. This will be located to the left of the Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) next to the school and pupils will have an opportunity to submit their design ideas for the garden to Friends of Hopwood Park.

The rest of the grant will cover installation of a path, round picnic benches and floral displays outside the wooden refreshment cabin, which was built last year.

If the highest grant is awarded, extra benches and fencing will also be installed.

Sandra Trickett, chairwoman of Friends of Hopwood Park, said: “Now the drainage problems have been resolved, the whole field can be used.

“We started out in 2011 with children’s play equipment and now we’re finding more people of all ages are coming to the park, so we’d like to be able to cater for all.

“Currently, there is no good disabled access. The path and benches will enable us to change this.”

The project with the highest number of votes will receive the largest grant. Voting takes place in any Tesco store in Rochdale from 26 September to 9 October, with the final grants awarded at the end of October.