WORK has been completed on the village games area in Black Torrington thanks to a grant from Tesco’s ‘#BagsofHelp’ initiative.

Black Torrington will be celebrating the opening of the newly resurfaced games area with a family fun day on the playing field on Saturday, September 10.

There will be organised games for all the family, a village rounders match, a boys vs girls netball match on the new games area. bouncy castles, barbecue and bar and music in the evening.

In order to complete the work an application was made to the Bags of Help scheme, where groups were voted for by the public to get funding. If a project came first in the voting they could win £12,000. If it was second or third it would get £10,000 or £8,000.

The Black Torrington play area project was successful in being awarded £10,000 and that money has now gone towards much needed updates and repairs to the games area.

Vice chairperson and lead for fundraising, Will Frost said: “We applied to Tesco bags of help fund having been told about it by Devon Playing Fields Association.

“The project was one of three chosen to be voted on my Tesco customers in local stores in North Devon. We came second out of all the projects and this meant the project has a grant of £10,000 just enough to pay for the Tarmac laying. It’s a local project that will benefit all the people of the village especially children. We have also been helped with donations from Black Torrington Parish Council and the village fundraising committee.”

The money was put to good use and the village now has a functional play area, which will be used in the upcoming opening event to hold a whole host of activities.

Mr Frost said: “The tarmac surface of the games area, tennis and netball court, was in a very bad state. It was loose and slippery with lots of sharp grit to cut knees and hands. We needed to lay a new surface on it to make it safe for people to play on.”

A local company completed the work and the play area has already seen some use from the local children. Mr Frost said: “We chose a local contractor called Newbridge Stone. Roy from Newbridge has been very good and has got the work done this summer holiday.

“He layed the tarmac during the week of August 20. It’s all finished and is now a very smooth surface. Kids from the village are playing on it already.”

This new games area will hopefully benefit the community, as it will give youngsters a safe place to play.

The playing field committee will need to raise at least £2,500 each year in order to maintain the field and play equipment, one way they are planning to do this is with the family fun day scheduled for this weekend.

Mr Frost added: “We raise money with annual events such as fetes, concerts, firework displays and the family fun day, which is happening on September 10. The fun day will be a celebration of the completion of the work and a boys vs girls netball match will be played.”