CUSTOMERS' votes have chosen Springboard Opportunity Group as charity of the year for Sainsbury’s in Bath Road and Station Hill Chippenham.

The charity was voted for by customers in store and online with a total of 528 votes.

The needs to raise £50,000 this year to ensure that they can continue to offer this much needed service for children under 5 and their families.

Springboard manager Jane Boulton said: "We are thrilled to bits to be Sainsburys' charity partner for the year. It is our 40th anniversary in 2016 and so to have this fundraising partnership is perfectly timed. We look forward to getting our heads together to come up with fun and original ideas."

The charity will receive a year’s worth of fundraising and awareness support from the store’s staff and customers

There will be a chance for customers to meet representatives from the charity at the Bath Road Store between Friday July 31 and August 2.

The local charity scheme is now in its seventh year and this year, for the first time, customers were given the chance to vote for their favourite charity. The scheme has raised over £7 million nationally to support since 2009.