A COMMUNITY action group in a neglected part of Yate has been handed much-needed cash to help fund events.

Abbotswood Action Group, set up to bring residents and shopkeepers in the precinct together and maintain the local area, has been given a £200 cash injection by convenience store McColl's.

The group, which runs various seasonal community days throughout the year, will put the money towards staging its annual apple day on October 2 and a Christmas event on November 28.

Mary Wright, chairman of the group, said: “We do not get a lot of funding so we are very grateful for this money.

“A donation like this will really help us.”

A percentage of money from selected items bought by customers at the McColl's store in Abbotswood Shopping Centre was put into a new Making a Difference Locally fund and staff were then able to decide who the first beneficiary should be.

Store manager Tony Gardiner said: “We will give money regularly once the fund has been built up and it will always be given to a local cause or charity.

“It is the first time we have done it and it is great to support a group which helps Abbotswood.”

The action group has long campaigned to improve Abbotswood, which falls within a priority neighbourhood area as designated by South Gloucestershire Council. The authority has awarded the group a grant from its priority neighbourhood grants funds which will be spent on employing a part-time member of staff, Rob Elliott, to work alongside volunteers.

“He will work with volunteers who came forward after we sent out a questionnaire last year and following the publication of our Abbotswood Community Plant,” said Mary.

“Yate Town Council is also negotiating to buy the land outside the front of the shops and at the back, something I have been calling the town council and South Gloucestershire Council to do for years. I think we will still have to maintain the area but we would have a lot more support.

“It is all positive at the moment, certainly more so than it has been in recent years.”