Charity 'losing money' from increased fly tipping

The RSPCA says more items are being dumped outside its charity shops when they are not open

People "rifle through" bags of clothes and toys left outside charity shops and "take what they want for themselves and leave behind what's no good", a charity boss said.

RSPCA area manager Shirley Mellor said that in the last two weeks alone, six of its shops in Rochdale had filled eight industrial-sized waste bins with unsellable items.

"We've seen a big increase in items getting left outside in the run-up to Christmas," she said. "A bed, some golf bags, a wheelchair, boxes of DVDs, broken toys."

The RSPCA previously spent about £100 a month on waste disposal before Rochdale Council began to assist due to the rubbish being classified as fly tipping.

Bags are being rooted through at night, damaging perfectly sellable items

However, Ms Mellor said the RSPCA was still suffering financially because many good-quality and otherwise sellable items were still having to be thrown away.

"People will root through the items, rip the bags open overnight," she explained.

"Once it's open and the elements can get to it, dogs go past and cock their leg - we don't have facilities to wash and dry them.

"It is quite upsetting people could genuinely be thinking 'I've got some really nice stuff for them here' but, because it's left outside, people steal them or they become damaged."