Show some charity!

Nov 16 2007 by Paul James, The Journal

A CHARITY shop is having to spend over £80-a-month on cleaning up fly-tipping, diverting much-needed cash from some of the most vulnerable children in the region.

Staff at the Barnardo’s shop in Park View, Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, have had problems for years with people leaving donations outside the door in the evenings and after closing time at weekends.

The goods often get vandalised, strewn all over the pavement and become unfit for sale.

But now they are being “plagued” with fly-tipping at the side of the shop, and are having to spend the charity’s hard-earned money to have it taken away by North Tyneside Council.

Yesterday shop manager Jill Inman said: “It is a bitter irony. All the money made in Barnardo’s shops in the North-East goes to help disadvantaged children in the region.

“But we find ourselves having to spend some of that money raised for those children to get rubbish taken away which people dump at the shop.”

Barnardo’s North-East works with 14,000 children, young people and their families a year, offering support when a child’s future is under threat from the likes of homelessness, drugs, sexual abuse, disability, unemployment or prejudice.

Jill added: “We get broken tables and chairs and all sorts of junk, which we can’t sell, left there.

“For years, we have pleaded with people not to leave donations in the evening or at weekends when we are not here, as they were constantly vandalised and we ended up not being able to sell them. Now, however, we are getting things left which are very obviously not fit for sale in the first place, but are just being left for us to get rid of, and it is costing us dearly.”

Last month, figures showed the bill for cleaning up after fly-tippers in the North-East was hitting £5.8m a year, making the North-East the third worst region in the country for the offence, with 83,137 recorded incidents in 2006-07.

The figures came from Flycapture, the national database of fly-tipping incidents and enforcement action, which was set up by the Government to record the incidents and cost of illegally dumped waste dealt with by councils.

Now Barnardo’s are appealing for volunteers to help remove the rubbish.

Jill added: “If anyone with a van or a large car would volunteer to take stuff to a tip for us, on an occasional basis, we would be so grateful,” she says. “We could pay petrol money and that would not be a problem.

“What is a problem is the £80 a month we have to spend to get the rubbish taken away. A volunteer to help take the stuff away for us, and help us get rid of it responsibly at virtually no cost, would be an enormous help to Barnardo’s.”

Contact Jill on (0191) 252-5552.