New keep fit equipment has made Bean’s park a place for everyone to enjoy.

The outdoor gym at Bean Recreation Ground, off the High Street, was paid for with an £8,000 funding grant from Tesco.

The supermarket teamed up with Groundwork to launch its Bags of Help scheme, which saw grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the 5p bag levy – being awarded to environmental and green space projects.

Eight million shoppers voted for where their money should go locally, in stores up and down the country.

Bean only has a population of 657 people and raising this amount of money would have been a tall order. They did, however, manage to collect £3,000, which they added to Tesco’s money to buy an extra two pieces of workout equipment, meaning there are seven gadgets to be used, instead of five.

Parish council chairman Anna Munday said: “We are thrilled to have received this grant.

“Over a period of 10 years the parish council has implemented a programme of updating and enhancing the play equipment and play area in our park for toddlers, four to 11-year-olds and over-12s. Our most recent project was the refurbishment of the toddler area which has encouraged many more families to visit the park and we now wanted to offer something for teenagers and adults – including parents, grandparents and carers.

“The village is in an area of deprivation and although very close to the Bluewater shopping centre public transport is poor and the cost of gym membership in neighbouring towns is very high. We want to encourage more families to use the facilities and to facilitate a sense of community and ownership.”

Caroline Silke, head of community at Tesco, said: “Bags of Help has been a fantastic success.

“This is the really exciting part of the project – seeing the projects coming to life.”

Applications for the next round of Bags of Help are open until tomorrow, (Friday).