Pinewood appeals for your TV votes

Nov 20 2008 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

Pinewood appeals for your TV votes

PUPILS, parents and staff of Pinewood School have a simple message for the people of West Lothian – vote for us.

The Parents and Staff Teachers Association’s (PASTA) ambitious project to build a new playground for the special needs school will appear on ITV's People's Millions – The Big Lottery Fund competition.

People's Millions is a UK-wide programme whose aim is to fund projects that improve the quality of life of local communities through transforming the local environment, or to provide opportunities or facilities for enjoying the local area.

Pinewood caters for children aged between five and 18 who have a range of additional needs, including severe learning disabilities, and specific syndromes such as autism and Down’s.

Some of the pupils have a dual-disability, which means they also have physical problems.

The PASTA committee want to completely renovate the school’s playground as well as install basketball courts and football pitches for the older kids and provide a safe and fun environment for the younger ones.

The Pinewood project will now be the subject of a short feature on the STV evening news at 6pm on Tuesday, November 25 where the school will be up against a youth centre in Edinburgh.

Whichever project obtains the most public votes between the hours of 9am and midnight on Tuesday will receive £50,000 of lottery funding towards their project.

The Courier has been covering the Pinewood campaign for the past four weeks and is urging readers to back their bid.

Parents Angela Bruty and Lynsey Findlay are behind the fundraising bid and they want the people of West Lothian to tune in next Tuesday.

Angela said: “While you can get the number from the website we really want people to watch the TV programme so they can see what it would mean to the children.

“It costs 10p a call and you can call up to 10 times from the same number.

“We started fundraising in May and our target was to get it done over the year.

“We have reached about £44,000 and the lottery grant would get us over the finishing line.”

The PASTA committee have worked tirelessly on the campaign and have delivered tens of thousands of leaflets to residents and put up posters all around the county.

All school pupils in West Lothian will also be given a leaflet to take home to their parents next week to encourage them to vote in the programme as well.

The phone number will only be obtainable from 9am on November 25 from the Big Lottery website www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/peoplesmillions

Each telephone number can be used to phone in a vote, a maximum of 10 times.