QPR in the Community Trust Wins Bags of Help Grant
£2,000 from Tesco scheme will help families to get healthier
QPR in the Community Trust has received £2,000 from Tesco's Bags of Help community grant scheme.
Bags of Help is run in partnership with environmental charity Groundwork and sees grants raised from the sale of carrier bags awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. Since launching in 2015, it’s provided more than £63 million to over 20,000 local community projects.
Millions of shoppers have voted in Tesco stores up and down the country and this month it has been revealed that QPR in the Community Trust was one of the latest winners.
The Trust says, thanks to the grant, work will now begin on bringing a project called 'Healthy R’s' to life. This will be a three-hour session run every other Saturday for the next ten weeks.
Each week there will be one hour of physical activity - mainly fun games and multi-sports to ensure that all the family can take part- followed by two hours of practical cooking. Some of the healthy recipes include Beef Stroganoff, Spinach Daal and Thai Curry.
Sinead Friel, QPR Trust Health Manager, said she was delighted at being awarded the financial donation.
"It’s fantastic to have been given this grant from Tesco. It will go towards helping many local families get healthier," she said.
Whilst Alec Brown, Tesco’s Head of Community, said: "Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. We can’t wait to see the projects come to life.”
Voting ran in stores throughout September and October with customers choosing which local project they would like to get the top award using a token given to them at the checkout.
Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups each time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions are awarded funding.
"Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down Britain to improve the local spaces and places that matter to them. The diversity of projects that are being funded shows that local communities have a passion to create something great in their area," said Graham Duxbury, Groundwork’s National Chief Executive.
“We are pleased to be able to be a part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive."
Funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities. Anyone can nominate a project and organisations can apply online. Find out more about Bags of Help here.
The war of words began with the publication last week of a report entitled the Economic and Social Value of QPR and Potential Stadium Development Proposals.
According to the report, by consultants Harch Regeneris, a new stadium with an adjacent community sport and athletics facility next door at the Linford Christie Stadium is the final chance for the club to stay in the borough.
It claims the move could deliver a £20m+ boost for the local economy, but if it did not go ahead and QPR moved out of the borough, it would mean a loss of the club's current economic value to the local area, estimated at £39m a year.
The report says, "The Linford Christie Stadium could be the club’s last chance to build a sustainable long-term future in the area that has been its home for a hundred years. It is also an opportunity to promote physical activity and improve the health and wellbeing of West Londoners by creating an innovative community sports hub with a professional football club at its heart."
The report also presents what it calls 'A Vision for a Redeveloped Loftus Road Site' which says that it could provide between 450 and 550 new homes, housing around 1,200 residents, plus 18,500 square feet of retail space, which could offer around 100 new jobs.
You can read an executive summary of the report here and download the full report here.
Last week, QPR chairman Amit Bhatia, pictured above, also revealed that the club’s owners will not be footing the whole bill for a new stadium, or for its new £30 million training facility at Warren Farm which received planning permission from Ealing Council last month.
QPR’s owners — Tony Fernandes, Kamarudin Meranun, Ruben Gnanalingam and the Lakshmi Mittal family — are estimated to have a combined personal wealth in excess of over £15.5 billion.
However, Mr Bhatia, who is the son-in-law of Lakshmi Mittal, told the Evening Standard that they are considering floating a bond, or looking at other sources of finance, in order to make the club sustainable.
He said, "Over an extended period of time — and it is a word often used, but it’s right — football clubs have to be sustainable; that rich benefactors don’t just throw money at it, even though it looks like the easiest solution from the outside.
"If floating a bond is deemed a more financially prudent way for a club to build the training ground, it should be explored, as with other financial options. If none of these prove successful, would the shareholders and board approve the investors to do it? Absolutely. But to use that as the first option, and not look at all the others beforehand, would not be prudent for the club."
He added."These are very large projects. Once we go through this process, will the shareholders have to put their hands in their pockets to some degree? Of course. Will we use any financial mechanisms available in the market place, like any construction project would take, as well? We would be foolish not to explore those.
"We would look at the training facility and the stadium the same way. But we are fortunate to have a giant asset in our current stadium. If Loftus Road is redeveloped into housing, that would go a long way into paying for any future development costs of a new ground."
In respond to these two developments Hammersmith & Fulham Council by issuing a statement saying, "QPR’s proposals are less about keeping football in the borough – and much more about them playing property developer in White City.
“The Council is a trustee of the Wormwood Scrubs Charitable Trust. And as a trustee we can’t just give away over one hundred million pounds worth of land to QPR’s multi-millionaire owners. Linford Christie Stadium is a vital community asset in an open green space.
"We want to protect and enhance its use for the environment, athletics, recreation and the long-term benefit of all our residents. We will consult residents early next year about how we can best achieve this.
"The Council is very proud to have QPR in our borough and has long made it clear to their owners and executive team that we will go out of our way to help QPR improve their current stadium or will work with them to look at other alternatives.
"However, we cannot just give away land for free or hand land to QPR’s owners well below its potential value – and just because QPR’s owners have decided to campaign for the council to do that. We believe QPR deserves to be invested in and call on its owners to do just that.
"We’d be interested in discussing with QPR’s owners the idea that they give up some ownership of the club to ensure the community and QPR’s fans have a greater voice in the club’s future."
January 21, 2019