Help a north east playground win a makeover with Flora!

Help a north east playground win a makeover with Flora

·         Flora and Groundwork, the community charity with a green heart have teamed up to offer local communities the chance to revamp their local playground amplified in store with Tesco

·         Evenwood in Country Durham, Chase Park in Whickham and Bushel Hill Park in Darlington are in with a chance to win a makeover

As part of Flora’s ongoing campaign encouraging families to get active, family favourite Flora is working with Groundwork, the community charity with a green heart, to offer communities in the North East the opportunity to transform one of their local playgrounds.

In total 36 playground project sites across the UK have been shortlisted by Flora and Groundwork, and one will win a makeover worth £30k. In the North East, Evenwood in County Durham, Bushel Hill Park in Darlington and Chase Park in Whickham have been included in this nomination.

The Evenwood site in County Durham is the only play area within the village, but after ten years of constant use the site is now worn and dated.  Users want to revitalise this space by installing new equipment that can breathe new life into the play area.

The play area in Chase Park, Whickham has deteriorated over a number of years, and equipment has become damaged both through constant use and vandalism. A recent consultation exercise on the whole park revealed that improving the play area was the main priority. Residents now urgently want to change this so local youngsters have somewhere to play safely.

Darlington’s Bushel Hill Park has been in the local community for over 40 years and has served a purpose next to Mowden Infant and Junior Schools, to provide a safe play facility for children aged 12 years and under. Two years ago, parents from the school approached Groundwork for support to raise funds to try to provide an updated play area for local children. The parents informally became known as the Friends of Bushel Hill Park. The group struggled to find funders to support the project because although the play area though was neglected and in need of refurbishment, it was not situated in an area of need.

Get your area voting by visiting www.flora.com/playground. The more votes your local playgrounds receives, the more chance they have of winning. The competition closes at midnight on Sunday 30 September 2012, and the project is being supported by certain Tesco stores in the UK.

Alessandra Sega, Brand Manager of Flora said: “We’re thrilled to be working with Groundwork on this fantastic community initiative and it’s great that Tesco is supporting the project in stores around the country. At Flora we understand the importance of an active lifestyle, and it’s vital to keep children busy, entertained and healthy with a balanced diet and plenty of play. The playgrounds that have been nominated for this initiative are in need of TLC and we are happy to help give one of them the attention it needs. We just need people to get their votes in!”

For more information on Flora, please contact the Flora Press Office at Lexis:

Penny Mairoudhiou – pmairoudhiou@lexisagency.com / 020 7908 6423